Appendix: Behind the Billy Pulpit “Today, I am writing the Easter message, so you’ll know when you hear it. Billy has been terribly busy, and on the run every minute, so I don’t see him much, but he has been so wonderful to work with, and so appreciative of all I have been doing.” 1 These words, part of a 1954 letter that Robert O. Ferm wrote to his family from the famous Harringay Crusade in London, suggest that Billy Graham preached sermons ghostwritten by members of his staff. Shortly before Ferm wrote this revealing letter, he had petitioned for a leave from his position as Dean of Students at Houghton College for the purpose of conducting research for Graham at Harringay. Houghton granted the initial leave and then extended it after the evangelist had wired a personal request to the college’s president. Graham’s rationale for his request is especially clear in a telegram he sent to Robert’s spouse, Lois Ferm, shortly after wiring the president: “I have been greatly aided by his research and other services. In these days of unprecedented revival I have great need of his service.” 2 The service rendered by Ferm and deemed indispensable by Graham included the ghostwriting of outlines and manu- scripts for sermons that the evangelist then preached, without ever publicly acknowledging Ferm’s contribution, at the Harringay Crusade, on the Hour of Decision radio programs, and on BBC radio. Ferm was not the first ghostwriter for Graham. In 1951 the evangelist had approached Lee Fisher, a wayward evangelist then working at a ranch for troubled boys in Florida, with a request to join the Graham team as a writer and researcher. In an interview conducted by Robert Ferm for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) Oral History Project and recently made public by the Billy Graham Archives at Wheaton College, Fisher reported that Graham had solicited his sermon-writing services by stating, “Lee, I don’t have anybody to help me in the writing or the research. I’ve never had anybody. Would you be interested in helping me in that capacity?” 3 Longing for a return to fulltime evangelistic ministry, Fisher expressed enthusiasm at the possibility of becoming part of a world- wide evangelistic movement, and Graham invited him to begin writing and researching immediately. Another year would pass before Fisher would formally join the Billy Graham team, but he submitted sermon material to the itinerant evangelist
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Appendix: Behind the Billy Pulpit
“Today, I am writing the Easter message, so you’ll know when you hear it.Billy has been terribly busy, and on the run every minute, so I don’t seehim much, but he has been so wonderful to work with, and so appreciativeof all I have been doing.”1 These words, part of a 1954 letter that Robert O.Ferm wrote to his family from the famous Harringay Crusade in London,suggest that Billy Graham preached sermons ghostwritten by members ofhis staff.
Shortly before Ferm wrote this revealing letter, he had petitioned for aleave from his position as Dean of Students at Houghton College for thepurpose of conducting research for Graham at Harringay. Houghtongranted the initial leave and then extended it after the evangelist had wireda personal request to the college’s president. Graham’s rationale for hisrequest is especially clear in a telegram he sent to Robert’s spouse, LoisFerm, shortly after wiring the president: “I have been greatly aided by hisresearch and other services. In these days of unprecedented revival I havegreat need of his service.”2 The service rendered by Ferm and deemedindispensable by Graham included the ghostwriting of outlines and manu-scripts for sermons that the evangelist then preached, without ever publiclyacknowledging Ferm’s contribution, at the Harringay Crusade, on theHour of Decision radio programs, and on BBC radio.
Ferm was not the first ghostwriter for Graham. In 1951 the evangelisthad approached Lee Fisher, a wayward evangelist then working at a ranchfor troubled boys in Florida, with a request to join the Graham team as awriter and researcher. In an interview conducted by Robert Ferm for theBilly Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) Oral History Project andrecently made public by the Billy Graham Archives at Wheaton College,Fisher reported that Graham had solicited his sermon-writing services bystating, “Lee, I don’t have anybody to help me in the writing or theresearch. I’ve never had anybody. Would you be interested in helping mein that capacity?”3 Longing for a return to fulltime evangelistic ministry,Fisher expressed enthusiasm at the possibility of becoming part of a world-wide evangelistic movement, and Graham invited him to begin writing andresearching immediately.
Another year would pass before Fisher would formally join the BillyGraham team, but he submitted sermon material to the itinerant evangelist
every week after their informal interview. “I was very pleased,” Fisherrecalled, “to tune in the Hour of Decision and see that he was using it.”4 In1952 Fisher then joined the BGEA as “research assistant,” and for the nexttwenty-three years he labored with a typewriter in a study far from the pul-pit at center stage, where Graham would use Fisher’s words to exhort mil-lions of people to confess their sins before God, receive the forgivenessmade possible by the blood of Jesus, accept Christ as their personal Lordand Savior, and begin to live the Christian life. Restricting himself tobehind-the-scenes ministry was not always easy for Fisher, and so he wasdelighted when BGEA eventually added “staff evangelist” to his formaltitle. But the Graham team rarely used Fisher as a preacher, and in remem-bering the promotion he suggested that the change of title actually servedto “cover up for the very personal and intimate work I was doing forBilly.”5
Rather than admitting that others authored manuscripts he regularlypreached, Graham reported in his autobiography that although he hadturned to key staff members for background research and editorial work onhis speeches, articles, and books, he had never relied on his staff for thepreparation of evangelistic sermons. “It has always been helpful to talk overwith others an article or special speech while I was drafting it. At the sametime, I have always adapted and digested material until it was part of me.And I have never been able to have others help me do my evangelisticsermons.”6 This claim, however, is misleading, and the best availableevidence for countering it is the small collection of letters that Robert Fermwrote to Lois, who would later become an employee of the Association,and their family from London in 1954. Because this issue is so sensitive andwill surely generate a chorus of Graham defenders, this excursus willdocument the Ferm correspondence.
One of the earliest letters in the series, dated March 18, 1954, reveals thatwithin the first week of his arrival in London, Ferm was already writing theentire script, including Graham’s sermon, for the Hour of Decision radio pro-gram. After relaying this exciting news home, the researcher was careful toinform his family that “his unusual service in [God’s] name” was “topsecret,” not to be talked about outside the family.7 The discrete researchersoon discovered that his confidential work was increasing appreciably, somuch so that by March 23, shortly after arriving in London, he was send-ing Graham one manuscript a day—a full sermon outline. “Right now,” hepenned home, “I am giving B.G. one mss. a day, and that takes time. I amgoing to attempt two tomorrow, and if so, Friday I hope to visit Stratfordon Avon.”8
Ferm found his new work consuming and lonely but also rewarding andtalismanic. “Last night,” he wrote home on March 27, “it was another thrillto hear preached a message I labored over here alone.”9 A day later headded: “Billy has been using my messages right along, so although I seldomvisit with him, I am sure he must be satisfied. It is a thrill to listen, after Ihave spent hours in thought and research and prayer, and then see hundreds
Billy Graham and the Beloved Community228
come to Christ. I know my limitations in preaching, but perhaps this is God’sway of making up to me what I lack in other ways.”10 Ferm would suggesttime and again that although he was hidden behind the scenes, far from thepublic eye, his ghostwriting of Graham’s sermons was nothing less than thewill of God. “You all know what my part in the work is,” he wrote his fam-ily, “and it is the kind of work that receives no glory and has to be donealone. But God has honored it and I will praise Him for it. Just pray . . . thatI will receive special help from His Word as I am serving Him this way.”11
On April 9 the devout researcher reconfirmed what he had mentionedto his family earlier—that his daily contribution to the will of God nowincluded both the completion of an outline for a crusade sermon and workon manuscripts for Graham’s Hour of Decision sermons. “After breakfast, Ifinished one more outline. I feel I must bring at least one a day, beside theH.O.D. messages.”12 Remarkably, Graham had begun by this point todepend on Ferm for the substantive content of the evening messages atHarringay—a dependence that the researcher detailed in a letter post-marked April 9: “When I brought the mss. to [Graham’s] room this after-noon, I talked a moment with Ruth, and she said he depended on my dailyoutline and notes for the evening message, so thank God for this serviceI can render.”13 Ferm found this news so significant that he repeated it justa few days later in yet another letter home: “[Graham] has been using mymessages nightly, and depends on one to be brought to him each day.”14
Equally remarkable, the days for which Graham expected Ferm’s sermonsincluded two of the most significant in the church year—Palm Sunday andEaster Sunday—as noted in Ferm’s April 10 request of his family: “Be sureto listen to the Palm Sunday H.O.D., for known reasons, and also Easter.Continue to pray for me, that I can do the work, and keep some degree ofhealth to do all B.G. needs done.”15 The researcher also noted in this letterthat Graham had asked him to begin writing two books, one on the law ofGod and one on reconciliation.
Coupled with the intense pressure of writing sermons that thousandswould hear at the crusade services and on the Hour of Decision was Ferm’sacute homesickness, and his discontent came pouring out in an April 9letter: “I find I must constantly ask the Lord to keep me from being dis-contented, and to give me the spirit of Paul, who said, ‘I have learned thatwhatever state I am in, therewith to be content.’ ”16 Although he recog-nized the value of his work and expressed no desire to disappoint Graham’sexpectations, Ferm became so discontented in England that he decided totake his problem directly to his boss; but the evangelist’s predictableresponse, given his dependence on Ferm’s daily sermons, was to insist thatthe homesick man stay with the crusade through the end of April. Fermagreed, and it was at this point that Graham wired Stephen Paine, the pres-ident of Houghton College, with the request for an extension of Ferm’sleave of absence. Ferm relayed this important news to his waiting family onApril 12 and then added: “Today I am writing the Easter message, so youwill know when you hear it.”17
Appendix 229
With the arrival of Easter Sunday, just days after he had learned thatGraham also wanted ghostwriting services for sermons that he wouldpreach on trips to Berlin, Paris, Stockholm, Oslo, and Copenhagen, Fermfound himself alone in his hotel room once again, writing yet another mes-sage for the evangelist. “I didn’t go to church this morning, though it isEaster,” he lamented to his family. “I had to finish a series of talks for Billyto go on B.B.C.” Easter Sunday also brought the languorous Ferm a one-on-one meeting with Graham, who approved even more sermons to beghostwritten. “I just had a meeting with Billy,” he wrote. “Ruth called meto come up, and he gave approval of the series I am working on. Messagesfrom the Beatitudes. He also told me what he wanted from the continent,and we knelt to pray for God’s blessing on the trip. I have the feelingthat I’m just in some strange way being carried along, not planning butfollowing a plan.”18
Twelve days later an airplane would carry an exhausted Ferm back to hisfamily, but he felt touched by the afflatus of God and knew that he wouldnot—could not—leave behind what he considered to be the divine planfor his life with Billy Graham. The omnicompetent researcher would even-tually become a fulltime employee of the Billy Graham EvangelisticAssociation and travel with Graham throughout Europe and then theworld. As director of research and special projects, he would continue to doresearch and writing for Graham, especially for his newspaper column titled“My Answer by Billy Graham,” and would later direct major administra-tive duties associated with the planning and execution of Graham’s world-wide crusades. But devoted to Graham and his ministry, Ferm, like othercrusade associates and even Ruth Bell Graham, would never publicly dis-close his sensitive role in ghostwriting the evangelistic sermons thatGraham had preached in Harringay and across the globe. Ferm’s complic-ity in keeping the secret even appears to be recorded in an interview con-ducted by his wife Lois on June 21, 1978, in which he obliquely referredto his special research during a cryptic exchange:
Lois Ferm: “You did other types of research too.”Bob Ferm: “Yes, many others.”Lois Ferm: “Some of which are those things which are best known to
Mr. Graham and they could be left there.”Bob Ferm: “Well, the very first one, I think my breaking in, was in his
book, Peace with God. I assisted in the preparation in that book.”19
From this point on, the interview stutters and stops and stutters some more,addressing every major issue but Robert’s ghostwriting of Graham’s evan-gelistic sermons, presumably the research that Lois thought best to keephidden from the public.
It is clear, then, that Graham and his associates have sought to keep theghostwriting roles of Lee Fisher, Robert Ferm, and perhaps a number ofother individuals in Graham’s inner circle, including John Akers, from the
Billy Graham and the Beloved Community230
public eye. Also clear is that the role of the ghostwriters was simply indis-pensable for the success of Graham’s public ministry, especially given theevangelist’s grueling schedule at the peak of his career. Like other majorpublic figures, Graham often faced daily schedules that were simply unbear-able, fully packed with meetings, interviews, speeches, strategy sessions,and even golf outings: there was very little time for Graham to study andreflect on the Bible and biblical commentaries, let alone to complete anentire sermon for every preaching date. In short, he was simply too busy towrite all of the sermons he preached during his crusades. Given this hecticschedule, it should come as no surprise that he relied on ghostwriters for hisevangelistic sermons. Interestingly, however, Graham’s biographers, inaddition to his critics and the worldwide media, have either missed orignored this practice, with the result that the contributions of Graham’sstaff have yet to limn into public consciousness. The one exception isWilliam Martin, whose massive biography (rightly critiqued by Tom Wickerfor its sympathetic tone) notes Graham’s reliance on ghostwriters in onlyone sentence.20
One of the reasons for the oversight surely reflects the style and deliveryof the sermons: When Graham preached, it seemed that the words really didflow from his own heart, mind, and soul. On the one hand, this is partlybecause he was not actually borrowing words written by unknown others;staff members who doubled as friends were writing words especially forBilly Graham. On the other hand, the evangelist was simply masterful in hispresentation. His mellifluous and powerful delivery, able to quiet a stadiumwith 60,000 worshippers, young and old, gave very little indication that hewas preaching sermons written by ghostwriters; rarely did he ever stumbleover the words before him, and rarely did he seem removed from the ser-mon text as he condemned and cajoled, swayed and persuaded. Perhapsanother reason for the oversight is the undeniable cultural expectation thatpreachers, even famous ones, will devote significant parts of their workschedule to preparing and writing their own sermons. While we expectthat politicians will openly rely on writers for their speeches—indeed, weknow that speechwriters are on the public payroll and occupy publicoffices—we seem to hold our preachers to a different standard. We do notexpect them to have ghostwriters on the payroll but trust them to sharewith us what they have personally discovered, in their daily study and prac-tices, about faith in the God of everyday life.
Whatever the reasons for the oversight might have been, a stereoscopicfocus on Graham’s ghostwriters would certainly sharpen the quality ofworks on the making of Billy Graham. Graham biographer Grant Wackerhas rightly suggested that “what is needed . . . is a careful effort to see how anarray of historically specific personal ingredients—talent, ambition, charisma,stamina and integrity—combined with an array of historically specific socialingredients—militarization, suburbanization, internationalization, anddiversification—to create a man and a legacy of exceptional proportions.”21
But Wacker’s thesis is insufficient: Also of fundamental importance is
Appendix 231
significant research into Graham’s immediate sources—his ghostwriters—and the various sources they adapted for encouraging millions of individualsto surrender their lives to Jesus Christ. Careful questioning about the roleof ghostwriters could lead to the pinpointing of possible changes, subtle andotherwise, in the substance and tone of Graham’s evangelical theology: Didthe writers shape his theology of atonement? Did they help him evolvefrom the alarmist stance he had adopted early in his career? Were theydriving forces behind his ecumenical appeal?
The task of pursuing these questions is necessary, not merely helpful, for fullyunderstanding the indisputable power of Billy Graham’s ministry, but the pro-tectiveness currently surrounding Graham’s personal papers, as well as those ofhis former associates, makes answering the questions virtually impossible at thispoint in history. And so the making of Billy Graham is a story that remainsfor Graham scholars to tell in years to come. Until we have full access to thosepapers and begin studying Graham as the head of a research and writing staff,we will not tell his story as well as we could. But this much is alreadyunassailable: The extraordinary ministry of Billy Graham was due in largepart to the hard work of ordinary researchers and writers who typed andretyped manuscripts in rooms far from the Billy pulpit.
Billy Graham and the Beloved Community232
N O T E S
Introduction: “Bowed in
Prayer”—Resurrecting the Assassinated King
1. Billy Graham, Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFransisco,1997), 696.
2. Martin Luther King, Jr., “The Birth of a New Age,” in Papers 3, 346.3. Quoted in Marshall Frady, Billy Graham: A Parable of American Righteousness (Boston, MA: Little,
Brown and Company, 1979), 416.4. “Billy Graham Closes Brisbane Conference,” April 7, 1968, News Release, Crusade Information
Service, Billy Graham Team Office, collection 345, box 55, no. 5, BGCA.5. The Hour of Decision was the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s weekly radio program.
Inaugurated in 1950, the program usually included Christian music, announcements aboutGraham’s ministry, prayers, and a sermon by Graham or a guest.
6. Graham, no title, April 7, 1968, collection 191, tape 952, BGCA.7. See Segment for McNeil/Lehrer News Hour, Public Broadcasting System, April 7, 1992, collec-
tion 74, V42, BGCA; Graham, Just As I Am, 426.8. David L. Chappell, A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow (Chapel Hill, NC:
The University of North Carolina Press, 2004), 140–144.9. Chris Rice laments that “King and Graham exemplify probably the greatest partnership that never
happened: two ministers of the gospel, representing two streams that truly need each other buthave never combined in a massive, interracial movement” (“An Unrealized Dream—Billy Grahamand Martin King: The Road Not Traveled,” Sojourners [January 27, 1998]: 14). My study exploressome of the reasons behind the divergent streams of King and Graham, but unlike Rice, I believethat the convergence of their streams would have meant the dominance of one or the other. Bytheir very nature, the different streams, at least as they existed in the public ministries of Grahamand King, sought to overtake each other.
10. I say “credible” because there is also a corpus of vitriolic and academically unhelpful writingsagainst Graham, especially from rabid fundamentalists. For a credible book-length critique, see theoverlooked Joe E. Barnhart, The Billy Graham Religion (Philadelphia, PA: Pilgrim Press, 1971).Although often hyperbolic, the sharpest analysis and criticism of Graham continues to be WilliamMcLoughlin, Billy Graham: Revivalist in a Secular Age (New York, NY: Ronald Press, 1960); a farless substantive and mostly unhelpful critique is Chuck Ashman, The Gospel According to Billy(Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stuart, 1977). The best biography by far is William Martin, A Prophet withHonor: The Billy Graham Story (New York, NY: William Morrow & Company, 1991); althoughTom Wicker has accused Martin of being unduly sympathetic, all other biographies come nowherenear the critical analysis that he offers. Among the few critical articles, the best are those written byRichard Pierard on the evangelist’s presidential and war politics. Unfortunately, the hagiographic,or at least relatively uncritical, literature on Graham is simply enormous. For example, see DavidAikman, Great Souls: Six Who Changed the Century (Nashville, TN: Word, 1998); Mary Bishop,Billy Graham, The Man and His Ministry (New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 1978); Lois Blewett,20 Years Under God: Proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the World (Minneapolis, MN: World
Wide Publications, 1970); George Burnham, Billy Graham: A Mission Accomplished (Westwood, NJ:Revell, 1955); George Burnham and Lee Fisher, Billy Graham: Man of God (Westchester, IL:Christian Readers Club, 1958); Russ Busby, Billy Graham, God’s Ambassador: A Lifelong Mission ofGiving Hope to the World (Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1999); Charles T. Cook, The BillyGraham Story: “One Thing I Do” (London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1954); Glenn Daniels, BillyGraham: The Man Who Walks with God (New York, NY: Paperback Library, 1961); Lewis A.Drummond, The Evangelist (Nashville, TN: Word Publishers, 2001); The Canvas Cathedral(Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003); The Early Billy Graham: Sermon and RevivalAccounts ed. Joel A. Carpenter (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1947); Robert O. Ferm, CooperativeEvangelism: Is Billy Graham Right or Wrong? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1958); John French,My Fight with Billy Graham (Memphis, TN: C. Goodman, 1959); David Frost, Billy Graham:Personal Thoughts of a Public Man—30 Years of Conversations (Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor,1997); Lewis William Gillenson, Billy Graham and Seven Who Were Saved (New York, NY: TridentPress, 1967); Stanley High, Billy Graham: The Personal Story of the Man, His Message, and His Mission(New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1956); Helen Kooiman Hosier, Transformed: Behind the Scenes withBilly Graham (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1970); Bill Jefferson, Billy Graham,Footprints of Conscience (Minneapolis, MN: World Wide Publications, 1991); David Lockard, TheUnheard Billy Graham (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1971); Curtis Mitchell, Billy Graham: The Makingof a Crusader (Philadelphia, PA: Chilton Books, 1966); Billy Graham, Saint or Sinner? (Old Tappan,NJ: Revell, 1979); Ronald Paul, Billy Graham: Prophet of Hope (New York, NY: Ballantine Books,1978); David Poling, Why Billy Graham? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1977); JohnCharles Pollock, Billy Graham: The Authorized Biography (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1967);Billy Graham, Evangelist to the World: An Authorized Biography of the Decisive Years (San Francisco, CA:Harper & Row, 1979); Billy Graham: Highlights of the Story (Basingstoke: Marshalls, 1984); The BillyGraham Story (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003); Crusades, 20 Years with Billy Graham(Minneapolis, MN: World Wide Publications, 1969); To All the Nations: The Billy Graham Story (SanFrancisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1985); Maurice Rowlandson, Life with Billy: An Autobiography(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1992); Gerald S. Strober, Graham: A Day in Billy’s Life (Old Tappan,NJ: Spire Books, 1977); Billy Graham, His Life and Faith (Nashville, TN: Word Books, 1977); JayWalker, Billy Graham: A Life in Word and Deed (New York: Avon Books, 1998); Sam Wellman, BillyGraham: The Great Evangelist (Ulrichsville, OH: Barbour and Company, 1996); Terry Whalin, BillyGraham (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2002); Grady Wilson, Billy Graham as aTeenager (Wheaton, IL: Miracle Books, 1957); Jean Wilson, Crusader for Christ: The Story of BillyGraham (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1973); Sherwood Eliot Wirt, Billy: APersonal Look at the World’s Best-Loved Evangelist (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1997).
11. William F. Buckley, Jr., Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography (Washington, DC: RegneryPublishing, Inc., 2004), 326.
12. See Billy Graham: A Tribute from Friends, compiled by Vernon McLellan (New York, NY: WarnerBooks, 2002), 71–72.
13. Mark A. Noll, “The Innocence of Billy Graham,” First Things ( January 1998): 34.
Chapter One “The Bible Says”: Heart
Problems and the Divine Cure
1. “Here Is Text of Graham’s Saturday Night Sermon,” The Charlotte Observer, September 28, 1958,10-A. The BGCA, which holds this text in collection 74, box 7, folder 3, lists the sermon title as“What’s Wrong with the World?” Subsequent references to this sermon will cite the BGCA title.The chapter will focus on this sermon because it offers a clear example of Graham’s lifelong under-standing of social problems and their remedy.
2. King, Jr., “To Billy Graham,” Papers 4, 265.3. Christian Smith, with Michael Emerson, Sally Gallagher, Paul Kennedy, and David Sikkink, American
Evangelicalism: Embattled and Thriving (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 10. My briefexplanation of the emergence of the neo-evangelicals is deeply indebted to Smith’s outstanding study.Beyond Smith’s work, the literature on American evangelicalism is substantial. Other particularly help-ful studies include Randall Herbert Balmer, Blessed Assurance: A History of Evangelicalism in America
Notes234
(Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1999); and Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the EvangelicalSubculture in America (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000); Donald Bloesch, The EvangelicalRenaissance (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1973); Donald Dayton and Robert Johnson, The Variety ofAmerican Evangelicalism (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1991); D.G. Hart, DeconstructingEvangelicalism: Conservative Protestantism in the Age of Billy Graham (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic,2004); James Davison Hunter, American Evangelicalism: Conservative Religion and the Quandary of Modernity(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1983); George Marsden, Evangelicalism and ModernAmerica (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1984); Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the NewEvangelicalism (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1987); Steven Miller, “Billy Graham, Evangelicalism, andthe Changing Postwar South (M.A. thesis, Vanderbilt, 2002); Mark Noll, American EvangelicalChristianity: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001); and J. Christopher Soper, EvangelicalChristianity in the United States and Great Britain (New York, NY: New York University Press, 1994).For more on Billy Graham’s split from fundamentalism, see Butler Farley Porter, “Billy Graham andthe End of Evangelical Unity” (Ph.D. diss., University of Florida, 1976).
4. Smith, American Evangelicalism, 14. Fundamentalists continue to harangue Graham for his “accom-modationism.” See, for example, Brad K. Gsell, The Legacy of Billy Graham: The Accommodation ofTruth to Error in the Evangelical Church (Charlotte, NC: Fundamental Presbyterian Publications, 1998).
5. For a helpful sketch of the founding of Christianity Today, including the neo-evangelicalism thatspurred the founding, see Martin, A Prophet with Honor, 211–217. See also Dennis Hollinger’sinteresting “American Individualism and Evangelical Social Ethics: A Study of Christianity Today”(Ph.D. dissertation, Drew University, 1981). The complete history of Christianity Today is yet to bepublished, but significant papers related to the topic exist in collection 8 (Christianity Today, Inc.,1956–) at BGCA.
6. Chappell has rightly argued that “King recognized the huge benefit of Graham’s soft-pedaled butpersistent initiatives” (A Stone of Hope, 144).
7. King, Jr., “To Billy Graham,” Papers 4, 265.8. Graham, Just As I Am, xv.9. I have decided not to focus on the making of Billy Graham, let alone the making of Martin Luther
King, Jr., but I do wish to suggest that we cannot fully understand and appreciate these two per-sonalities until we set them within the histories of their respective ecclesial contexts. These con-texts—the white Baptist Church and the black Baptist Church—were radically different in manyways, and there is no better source to begin tracing these differences, and then connecting them toGraham and King, than Andrew Michael Manis, Southern Civil Religions in Conflict: Black and WhiteBaptists and Civil Rights, 1947–1957 (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1987). One of myundeveloped theses is that the eventual conflicts between Graham and King were but microcosmicreplications of the larger battles fought between their respective conventions—the Southern BaptistConvention and the National Baptist Convention. On a related note, the differences between therevivialist traditions of the two figures is surveyed in Edward Lee Moore, “Billy Graham andMartin Luther King, Jr.” (Ph.D. diss., Vanderbilt University, 1979).
10. In an October 17, 1940 speech, King, Sr. had argued that in the historic life of Jesus, “we find weare to do something about the broken-hearted, poor, unemployed, the captive, the blind, and thebruised. . . . God hasten the day when every minister will become a registered voter and a part ofevery movement for the betterment of our people” (see “Introduction,” in Papers 1, 34; the man-uscript of the address is in the Christine King Farris Collection [in private hands]). Other clergymembers of the black Baptist Church, for example, William Holmes Borders and Benjamin Mays,also taught King, Jr. that social-justice ministries are an integral part of ordained ministry.
11. Graham, Just As I Am, 426.12. Lowell D. Streiker and Gerald S. Strober, Religion and the New Majority: Billy Graham, Middle
America, and the Politics of the 70s (New York, NY: Association Press, 1972), understate the point:“It cannot be stressed too strongly that Graham’s social thought is grounded in his theological pre-suppositions” (39). Graham’s social thought is a species of his evangelical theology.
13. With increased attention to individuals beyond King, as well as social forces that assisted and com-plicated his leadership, the ever-expanding studies of the civil rights era are finally acknowledgingthat the movement, though partly grounded in King’s person and work, was much larger thanKing himself. Although I assume the proper distinction between King and the civil rights move-ment, my study closely connects the civil rights leader and the movement on issues of deep con-vergence—for example, the major premises of both King and the movement regarding socialaction.
Notes 235
14. King’s social focus is especially visible in his typical characterization of the nonviolence of the civilrights movement: “There is something else: that one seeks to defeat the unjust system, rather thanthe individuals who are caught in that system. . . . The thing to do is to get rid of the system andthereby create a moral balance within society” (“Love, Law, and Civil Disobedience,” in ATestament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., ed. James M.Washington [San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1986], 47). On the tactical strategy he even-tually termed “nonviolent direct action,” see Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here:Chaos or Community? (New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1967).
15. Reinhold Niebuhr, “A Theologian Says Evangelist Is Oversimplifying the Issues of Life,” Life(July 1, 1957): 92; and Mark A. Noll, “The Innocence of Billy Graham,” First Things, no. 79 (January1998): 36.
16. Martin E. Marty, Religion and Republic: The American Circumstance (Boston, MA: Beacon Press,1987), 24. For more on Graham’s homiletics, see John E. Baird, “The Preaching of Billy Graham”(Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1959).
17. Interview with Dr. Dan M. Potter, December 11, 1970, collection 141, box 10, folder 49, p. 9,BGCA. Graham’s own comments are also worth remembering here: “One newspaper article saidthat in my next sermon I would hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, I don’tknow whether that was literally true, but it did symbolize my constant effort to show the timeli-ness of God’s eternal truths. In preaching the Gospel, I could also comment on everything cur-rent—the Communist threat, moral and social issues in the newspaper, Judgment Day” ( Just AsI Am, 126).
18. The following sections in the text will suggest that Graham’s answer to the question of cause, statedin Charlotte and elsewhere, consistently included all of the doctrines that James Davison Hunterhas identified as characteristic of “the evangelical meaning system”—the final authority of theBible, the deity of Jesus Christ, eternal salvation through personal acceptance of Christ as Savior,the significance of evangelism, and the Second Coming of Christ (American Evangelicalism:Conservative Religion and the Quandary of Modernity [New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press,1983], 47). The heart of Graham’s social ethics, as we will see, was nothing if not evangelical.
19. A major academic study of Mordecai Ham, whose papers are found in collection 118 at BGCA,has yet to be published in book form. Minor related works include Battle Front Messages: SermonsThat Brought Revival, ed. Edward E. Ham (Louisville, KY: Old Kentucky Home Revivalist, 1950);Edward Everett Ham, 50 Years on the Battle Front with Christ: A Biography of Mordecai F. Ham(Louisville, KY: Old Kentucky Home Revivalist, 1960); and Edward Reese, The Life and Ministryof Mordecai Ham, 1877–1961 (Glenwood, IL: Fundamental Publishers, 1975).
20. Graham, Just As I Am, 139.21. See King, Jr., “Contemporary Continental Theology,” Papers 2, 137–138. Of special note here is
that Graham cited Karl Barth as one of the theologians whose works had forced him to “strugglewith concepts that had been ingrained in me since childhood,” including fundamentalist convic-tions about the absolute authority of scriptures (Just As I Am, 135).
22. In addition, it is important to note that Graham was not biblicist in the sense of rejecting all of thetheological tenets that emerged in post-biblical history, for example, tenets in trinitarian theology.I am reminded here of Eric Gritsch, Martin—God’s Court Jester: Luther in Retrospect (Philadelphia,PA: Fortress Press, 1983), who claims that Luther’s embrace of sola scriptura “did not lead Luther toembrace a biblicism rejecting the authority of Christian tradition in post-biblical history. Rather,he wanted tradition to be tested by Scripture” (103). Graham, I believe, adopted a similar approach,although he never explicated this approach in detail. For more on Graham and scripture, see LarryDavis, “Interpretation of Scripture in the Evangelistic Preaching of William Franklin ‘Billy’Graham” (Ph.D. diss., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1986).
23. Graham, “What’s Wrong with the World?” 10-A.24. Niebuhr, “A Theologian Says Evangelist Is Oversimplifying the Issues of Life,” 92. Niebuhr’s
snobbishness especially came to expression in his undocumented claim that because Graham didnot address social issues, few city residents attended the crusade. “The bulk of his nightly audi-ence,” Niebuhr wrote, “comes from out of town” (92).
25. Reinhold Niebuhr, “Literalism, Individualism, and Billy Graham,” Christian Century (May 23,1956): 64.
26. Pheme Perkins, “Mark,” in vol. 8 of The New Interpreter’s Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes,ed. Leander Keck (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 1995), 608.
27. Graham, “What’s Wrong with the World?” 10-A.
Notes236
28. For more on King’s appeal to the individual heart, see King, Jr., “Unfulfilled Dreams,” A Knock atMidnight: Inspiration from the Great Sermons of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., ed. Clayborne Carsonand Peter Holloran (New York, NY: Warner Books, 1998), 191–200.
29. Graham, The Seven Deadly Sins (London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1956), 21.30. Quoted in McLoughlin, Billy Graham, 91.31. Graham, Revival—Or the Spirit of the Age (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association, 1952), 3.32. Graham, “Jesus, the Great Revolutionist,” March 12, 1961, collection 191, tape 583, BGCA.33. Graham, “The Great Reconciliation,” Decision (June 1964): 2.34. Graham, “The Needed Revolution,” January 14, 1968, collection 191, tape 940, BGCA. The
references to the heart are staggering in number. For a few more examples, see Graham, The Signsof the Times (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1957), 3–4; BillyGraham Answers Your Questions (Minneapolis, MN: World Wide Publications, 1960), 118; “Jesus,the Great Revolutionist,” tape 583, BGCA; “The Human Heart,” Decision ( July 1962): 14; PressConference Transcript, Columbus, Ohio, July 9, 1964, collection 24, box 4, folder 14, p. 6,BGCA; “A Cause to Fight,” August 13, 1967, collection 191, tape 918, BGCA; and “FalseProphets in the Church,” Christianity Today (January 19, 1968): 5.
35. Graham, Christ’s Marching Orders (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,1955), 3.
36. See Graham, World Aflame (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1965), 71.37. Ibid., 67–68.38. Ibid., 73.39. Graham, “The Quiet Revolution,” December 29, 1967, collection 345, box 43, folder 4, p. 8,
BGCA.40. Graham, “What’s Wrong with the World?” 10-A. For more on Graham’s understanding of sin, see
Howell Burkhead, “The Development of the Concept of Sin” (Ph.D. diss., Southwestern BaptistTheological Seminary, 1998). For a more general thesis on Graham’s theology, see Thomas PaulJohnson, “The Work of an Evangelist” (Ph.D. diss., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2001).
41. Smith, American Evangelicalism, provides the best concise summary on this point: “And individual-ism in evangelicalism runs deep, with roots extending back to most of the historical wellsprings ofthe modern evangelical tradition: the sixteenth-century Reformation, English and AmericanPuritanism, much of the Free Church tradition, frontier awakening and revivalism, movements ofspiritual pietism, and anti-Social Gospel fundamentalism” (189). On a related note, Marc Ellingsen,The Evangelical Movement: Growth, Impact, Controversy, Dialog (Minneapolis, MN: AugsburgPublishing House, 1988), is far too general when claiming that in evangelical social thought, “con-cern for structural change is always combined with, and yet distinct from, a concern with individ-ual personal redemption” (275). For Graham, concern for structural change was rarely separatedfrom concern for individual conversion.
42. Graham, “What’s Wrong with the World?” 11-A.43. King, Jr., “MIA Mass Meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church,” Papers 3: 74.44. Graham, Christ’s Marching Orders, 3.45. Ibid.46. The insufficiency of law was a key emphasis in Graham’s thought throughout the King years, and
it came to clearest expression during the school integration crisis in Little Rock, when Grahamannounced that it is impossible to legislate morality, and during the Watts riots, when he called foradditional laws to safeguard society. For more on this, as well as King’s reaction, see the followingchapters.
47. See Press Conference Transcript, San Diego, California, April 30, 1964, collection 24, box 4,folder 13, p. 3, BGCA.
48. Graham, “What’s Wrong with the World?” 11-A.49. The different depictions of Jesus are from James Gustafson, Christ and the Moral Life (Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press, 1968).50. Graham, World Aflame, 116.51. Graham, of course, pointed to the Bible when offering his Anselmian argument. In Charlotte, for
example, he preached: “The Bible says, ‘He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin.’The Bible says, ‘The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.’ The Bible says, He ‘his own selfbears our sins in his own body on the tree.’ The Bible says, ‘Christ also hath once suffered for sins,the just for the unjust’ ” (“What’s Wrong with the World?” 11-A).
Notes 237
52. King, Jr., “A View of the Cross Possessing Biblical and Spiritual Justification,” Papers 1, 266.53. For a critical study of Graham’s view of salvation, see William D. Apel, “The Understanding of
Salvation in the Evangelistic Message of Billy Graham: A Historical-Theological Evaluation”(Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1977).
54. Graham, “What’s Wrong with the World?” 11-A.55. Graham, World Aflame, 140.56. Ibid., 167.57. Press Conference Transcript, Zagreb, Yugoslavia, July 1967, collection 24, box 1, folder 4, p. 2,
BGCA.58. Graham, “The Risen Christ—Adequate for the World’s Greatest Problem,” March 29, 1964, col-
lection 191, tape 742, BGCA.59. The phrase “personal influence strategy” comes from Christian Smith, American Evangelicalism, 187.
“American evangelicals,” Smith writes, “are resolutely committed to a social-change strategywhich maintains that the only truly effective way to change the world is one-individual-at-a-timethrough the influence of interpersonal relationships” (187).
60. Graham was greatly disturbed by the tendency in the 1960s to identify evangelism with social action.In 1967, for example, he stated: “I think social activism is good, but I don’t think it belongs in thecategory of evangelism as some people are saying. They say, ‘You’re not evangelizing unless you getin a picket line. You’re not evangelizing unless you’re protesting something.’ Well, this is fine ifpeople feel led to do this. But that is not evangelism.” Graham not only wanted to distinguish evan-gelism from social action, of course, but to identify the former as the more fundamental practice ofthe two. “Evangelism,” he continued, “is winning people to a commitment to Jesus Christ. Thenafter the commitment, then tell them, “You’ve got a responsibility in social action’ ” (PressConference Transcript, Atlanta, Georgia, December 29, 1967, collection 24, box 1, folder 7, p. 10,BGCA). For an excellent account of these arguments during the King years, see Thomas C. Berg,“Proclaiming Together? Convergence and Divergence in Mainline and Evangelical Evangelism,1945–1967,” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 5 (Winter 1995): 49–76.
61. Graham, “The Proper Balance of the Church,” June 12, 1964, collection 191, tape 757, BGCA.The references to the proper sequence of social transformation are substantial in the Graham cor-pus. For an additional example, see Press Conference, San Diego, April 30, 1964, 3.
62. Graham, “Marching for Christ in Montgomery,” June 20, 1965, collection 191, tape 806, BGCA.See also Press Conference Transcript, Tokyo, Japan, October 16, 1967, collection 24, box 1, folder6, p. 10, BGCA; and Graham, The Signs of the Times, 4.
63. “Graham Endorses “Social Gospel” as Part of the Biblical Gospel,” Religious News Service PressRelease, collection 345, box 44, folder 5, BGCA.
64. Graham, untitled sermon, July 18, 1957, collection 26, tape 495, BGCA.65. Graham, Peace with God (Garden City, KS: Doubleday, 1953), 169.66. Graham’s advice regarding “wholesome living” reflects the lifestyle of middle-class America in the
1950s: “You are to be radiant. You should be chivalrous, courteous, clean of body, pure of mind,poised and gracious. . . . Your appearance should be neat, clean, attractive, and as much as possiblein style, with good taste. . . . You should strive to be the ideal gentleman or the ideal lady. Yourlife and appearance should commend the gospel and make it attractive to others” (Ibid., 171).
67. Graham, “The Needed Revolution,” Decision, May 1968.68. Graham, “A Cause to Fight,” tape 918.69. Letter from Billy Graham to Dwight D. Eisenhower, March 26, 1955, DDEL.70. Niebuhr, “A Theologian says Evangelist Is Oversimplifying the Issues of Life,” 92. In his optimistic
moments, Graham liked to cite one of the most optimistic U.S. presidents. “Franklin Roosevelt,”Graham preached in 1956, “once said, ‘I doubt if there is any problem, social, moral or politicalthat would not melt away before the fire of spiritual awakening’ ” (Graham, The Revival We Need[Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1956], 7).
71. The expression “miracle motif” comes from Rodney Stark, Bruce D. Foster, Charles Y. Glock,Harold E. Quinley, Wayward Shepherds: Prejudice and the Protestant Clergy (New York: Harper &Row, 1971), 103.
72. Graham, God and the Nations (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,1964), 10.
73. Graham, World Aflame, 178. See also Press Conference Transcript, Tokyo, October 16, 1967, 9.74. Graham, “What’s Wrong with the World?” 11-A.
Notes238
75. “Billy Graham Discounts Human Efforts at Racial Harmony,” Los Angeles Times, August 3 and 10,1963, quoted in Martin, A Prophet with Honor, 296.
76. McLoughlin, Billy Graham, 71.77. See Press Conference Transcript, Tokyo, October 16, 1967, 9; and Graham, World Aflame, 178.78. See C.H. Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom (New York, NY: Scribner, 1961).79. Graham, World Aflame, 193. See also Graham, “The Soviet Threat to Life on Earth,” Decision
(October 1961): 14–15.80. “This Is Text of Graham’s Sunday Afternoon Sermon,” The Charlotte Observer, Monday, October
6, 1958, 12-A. BGCA, which holds this text in collection 74, box 7, folder 3, lists the title of thesermon as “The Second Coming of Christ.” Subsequent references to the sermon will cite theBGCA title.
81. King, Jr., “The Christian Pertinence of Eschatological Hope,” Papers 1, 269.82. Graham, God’s D-Day (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association), 6.83. Press Conference Transcript, Tokyo, October 16, 1967, 8. With Graham’s deep pessimism in
mind, I disagree with Martin’s claim that the evangelist’s theology was “essentially optimistic” (AProphet with Honor, 155). Martin is usually accurate in his critical interpretation of Graham, but onthis point, he is far from accurate.
84. Graham, “The Second Coming,” 13-A.85. Graham, That Day (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1955), 8–9.86. Graham, The Kingdom Society (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,
1965); and “The Kingdom Society,” Decision (September 1965): 1, 14–15.87. Graham, World Aflame, 191.88. Press Conference Transcript, San Diego, April 30, 1964, 14.89. Press Conference Transcript, Atlanta, December 29, 1967, 2.90. Graham, World Aflame, 191.91. Ibid., 192.92. Ibid., 193.93. Graham, “Wars and Rumors of Wars,” April 29, 1962, collection 191, tape 642, BGCA. See also
Graham, Needed! Strong Men (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,1960), 3–4.
94. Graham devoted no sustained attention to his claim about the restructuring of social institutionsduring the thousand-year reign.
95. Graham, “The Second Coming of Christ,” 13-A.96. I agree with McLoughlin: “That [Graham’s Gospel] differs little from the stereotype of fundamen-
talism is apparent (Billy Graham, 79).97. Lee Nash, “Evangelism and Social Concern,” The Cross and the Flag, ed. Robert G. Clouse, Robert
D. Linder, and Richard V. Pierard (Carol Stream, IL: Creation House, 1972), 144.
Chapter Two “Preaching Nothing but the
Bible”: Against a Political Church
1. Press Conference Transcript, Phoenix, Arizona, April 23, 1964, collection 24, box 4, folder 11, p. 6,BGCA.
2. King, Jr., Strength to Love (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1981), 62.3. King, Jr., “Revolution and Redemption,” 9, MLKJP, GAMK.4. King, Jr., Strength to Love, 61.5. Graham, Peace with God, 175.6. “Here Is Text of Graham’s Friday Night Sermon,” The Charlotte Observer, October 25, 1958, 11-A.
All subsequent references will list this sermon as “The Church,” the title listed by BGCA.7. Graham, “The Risen Christ—Adequate for the World’s Greatest Problem,” tape 742, BGCA. And
thus Ralph Reed, Active Faith: How Christians Are Changing the Soul of American Politics (New York,NY: The Free Press, 1996), misunderstands Graham when he argues that King, unlike the evan-gelist, “considered his duties as proselytizer and political player inseparable” (60).
8. Graham, My Answer (Garden City, KS: Doubleday & Company, 1960; repr., 1967), 180.
Notes 239
9. Press Conference Transcript, Columbus, Ohio, January 28, 1963, collection 24, box 4, folder 9,p. 11, BGCA.
10. Graham, My Answer, 180–181.11. Graham, “The Church,” 11-A.12. King, Jr., Interview by Hugh Downs, Today Show, NBC, April 18, 1966, p. 2, MLKJP, GAMK.13. Graham, “The Risen Christ,” tape 742.14. Graham, World Aflame, 187. For a common but faulty spiritualization of Graham’s theology, see
Charles W. Dullea, A Catholic Looks at Billy Graham (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1973): “As forwhat is called ‘the social Gospel,’ Graham’s position is clear: Taking this term to mean that thechurch should concern itself with . . . the temporal lot of man, he wants none of it” (30). Dullea isterribly wrong; though never a traditional social gospeler, Graham was an advocate of church-driven charity to improve the material lot of humanity.
15. King, Jr., “Guidelines for a Constructive Church,” Knock, 114–115; and The Autobiography ofMartin Luther King, Jr., ed. Clayborne Carson (New York, NY: Warner Books, 1998), 354.
16. Graham, Peace with God, 184.17. Ibid.18. Graham, “The Church,” 11-A.19. A. James Reichley, Faith in Politics (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2002), 292.20. Graham, Peace with God, 184.21. Graham, “The Proper Balance of the Church,” tape 757.22. Graham, “The Real Role of the Church,” November 26, 1967, collection 191, tape 933, BGCA.23. Graham, World Aflame, 182.24. Press Conference Transcript, Columbus, July 9, 1964, 8–9.25. Graham, World Aflame, 181.26. Ibid.27. Press Conference Transcript, Los Angeles, California, May 13, 1968, collection 24, box 1, folder 10,
p. 12, BGCA.28. Graham, “The Proper Balance of the Church,” tape 757.29. Graham, “Alarming Trends within the Church,” June 21, 1964, collection 191, tape 754, BGCA.30. Graham, World Aflame, 180.31. Graham, “The Real Role of the Church,” tape 933.32. The BGA transcript actually reads this way: “But I don’t think the church should assert their
authority of the state.” That statement makes no sense, and in light of Graham’s other commentsin the press conference, I am convinced that the transcriber did not transcribe Graham’s commentscorrectly—hence, my changing of the word “of ” to “over.” See Press Conference Transcript, col-lection 24, Sydney, Australia,1968, collection 24, box 1, folder 9, p. 5, BGCA.
33. Graham, untitled sermon, May 8, 1966, box 9, folder 26, BGCA.34. Press Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 17, 1967, collection 24, tape 17, BGCA. See also
Press Conference, Tokyo, Japan, October 16, 1967, 7.35. Press Conference, Tokyo, Japan, October 16, 1967, 7.36. Press Conference, San Juan, March 17, 1967, 7.37. This argument is also recounted in Graham, World Aflame, 182–183.38. For more on the evangelical appeal to the two-kingdoms approach, see Dennis P. Hollinger,
Individualism and Social Ethics: An Evangelical Syncretism (Lanham, MD: University Press of America,1983), 111–113.
39. Martin Luther, “On Secular Authority,” in Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority, trans. anded. Harro Hopfl (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 9.
40. Ibid., 11.41. Ibid., 12.42. Press Conference, Sydney, 1968, 6.43. Graham, “Proper Balance of the Church,” tape 757.44. Graham, “A Cause to Fight,” tape 918.45. Press Conference Transcript, Washington, DC, December 22, 1964, collection 24, box 4, folder 6,
p. 6, BGCA.46. Graham, “Alarming Trends within the Church,” tape 754.47. Luther, “On Secular Authority,” 11–12.48. Graham, “The Real Role of the Church,” tape 933.
Notes240
49. Graham, “False Prophets in the Church,” Christianity Today ( January 19, 1968): 5. See also WorldAflame, 184.
50. Press Conference Transcript, Washington, DC, December 22, 1964, 4.51. Graham, Just As I Am, 568.52. King, Jr., Autobiography, 200.53. Ibid., 201.54. Ibid.55. See Hollinger, Individualism and Social Ethics, 103.56. Graham, My Answer, 177.57. Walter Pilgrim, Uneasy Neighbors: Church and State in the New Testament (Minneapolis, MN:
Augsburg Fortress Press, 1999), 64.58. Ibid., 66.59. Press Conference, Columbus, January 28, 1963, 10.60. Graham, My Answer, 177.61. Ibid., 178–179.62. Graham, “Cast Your Vote for Christ,” November 4, 1956, collection 191, tape 356, BGCA.63. Graham, “Cast Your Vote for Christ,” November 6, 1960, collection 191, tape 565, BGCA.64. Graham, Billy Graham Answers Your Questions, 58.65. See Ibid., 57–58; and Graham, My Answer, 177.66. Graham, My Answer, 177.67. Press Conference Transcript, Atlanta, November 5, 1964, p. 3, collection 24, box 4, folder 15,
BGCA.68. Mark Noll, “The Innocence of Billy Graham,” First Things ( January 1998): 35.69. See Segment for McNeil/Lehrer News Hour, Public Broadcasting System, April 7, 1992, collec-
tion 74, video 42, BGCA.70. The phrase “strategy of access” is from Mark A. Noll, American Evangelical Christianity, 49. For
more on Graham and the public square, see Eric J. Paddon, “Modern Mordecai: Billy Graham inthe Political Arena” (Ph.D. diss., Ohio University, 1999).
71. Press Conference Transcript, Columbus, July 9, 1964, 8. For more on Graham’s relationship withU.S. presidents, see Elizabeth Earl, “A Comparison of Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell” (Ph.D. diss.,Ohio University, 1991); Danny Day, “The Political Billy Graham” (M.A. thesis, WheatonCollege, 1996); and, most importantly, Richard V. Pierard, “Billy Graham and the U.S.Presidency,” Journal of Church and State, vol. 22, no. 1 (1980): 107–127.
72. Graham to Truman, July 18, 1950, HSTL.73. Graham to Eisenhower, May 10. 1954, DDEL.74. Graham to Johnson, July 11, 1965, LBJL.75. Graham to Johnson, June 21, 1968, LBJL.76. Graham, “Nations, Repent!” March 8, 1964, collection 191, tape 739, BGCA.77. Graham, My Answer, 177.78. Graham to Eisenhower, August 19, 1955, DDEL.79. Graham to Eisenhower, August 4, 1960, DDEL.80. Graham to Nixon, September 1, 1960, Series 320, Vice Presidential General Correspondence,
Dr. Billy Graham Folder, RMNPMP.81. Graham to Nixon, August 23, 1960, RMNPMP.82. Graham to Nixon, June 21, 1960, 1–2, RMNPMP.83. Press Conference Transcript, Atlanta, November 5, 1964, 2, BGCA.84. Graham to Nixon, May 27, 1960, RMNPMP.85. See Press Conference Transcript, Columbus, July 9, 1964, 8.86. Ibid., 4.87. King, Jr., “Advice for Living,” in Papers 4, 280.88. Ibid., 281.89. King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (New York, NY: Harper & Row,
1958), 117.90. Graham, “Love and Little Rock,” September 29, 1957, collection 191, tape 403, BGCA.91. Graham to Truman, February 17, 1949, HSTL.92. Graham to Eisenhower, August 19, 1955, DDEL.93. Graham, “Love and Little Rock,” tape 403.
Notes 241
94. King, Jr., Autobiography, 193–194.95. Graham, “Love and Little Rock,” tape 403.96. Graham, “Facing the Anti-God Colossus,” Christianity Today (December 21, 1962): 8.97. Graham, “Jesus, the Great Revolutionist,” tape 583.98. Graham, “The Proper Balance of the Church,” tape 757.99. Press Conference Transcript, Atlanta, November 5, 1964, 2–3.
100. Pilgrim, Uneasy Neighbors, 7.101. Ibid.102. Press Conference Transcript, May 13, 1968, Los Angeles, 4.103. Press Conference Transcript, Atlanta, November 5, 1964, 3.104. Graham, “Love and Little Rock,” tape 403.105. For more on Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, see Graham, “God with Us,” Decision
(December 1961): 14.106. Graham, Billy Graham Answers Your Questions, 57.107. Press Conference Transcript, Columbus, July 9, 1964, 7 (emphasis mine).
Chapter Three “True Christian Loyalty in
Our Hearts”: A Christian Defense of
American Patriotism
1. Graham, Labor, Christ, and the Cross (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham EvangelisticAssociation, 1953), 5.
2. Ibid.3. Graham, The Ultimate Weapon (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,
1961), 6.4. Graham, Labor, Christ, and the Cross, 5. For more on Graham’s anti-communist rhetoric, see Starla
Drum, “The Anti-Communism Rhetoric of Billy Graham in the Early 1950s” (M.A. thesis,University of Oregon, 1970); and Christopher Trotta, “The Communist Threat and a Preacher’sAmbition: Billy Graham and the Use of Political Anti-Communist Rhetoric during the Trumanand Eisenhower Administrations” (M.A. thesis, Miami University, 2002).
5. Robert Bellah, “Civil Religion in America,” Daedalus, vol. 96, no. 1 (Winter 1967): 14.6. See Graham, “The Quiet Revolution,” collection 345.7. Noll, American Evangelical Christianity, 48.8. Roderick P. Hart, The Political Pulpit (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 1977), 69.
Edwin Scott Gaustad, A Religious History of America (New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1990),describes Graham as “a kind of patriarch of what Benjamin Franklin had called ‘public religion’ ”(367). And William McLoughlin, “Pietism and the American Character,” American Quarterly(Summer 1965): 163–186, has described Graham’s sermons as a “blatant equation of Christianitywith American patriotism and the free enterprise system.” I agree with all three characterizations.
9. Graham, “Thanksgiving,” November 18, 1956, collection 191, tape 358, BGCA.10. Graham, “Here Is Text of Billy Graham’s First Sermon,” The Charlotte Observer, September 22,
1958, 6-A. Subsequent notes will refer to this text as “Christ’s Answer to the World,” the titlesupplied by BGCA. See also Graham, “Here Is Text of Graham’s Friday Night Sermon,” TheCharlotte Observer, October 11, 1958, 6-A. “Escapism” is the title given by BGCA.
11. Ibid.12. Graham, God and Crime (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1956), 6.13. Ibid., 11.14. Graham, “Thanksgiving,” tape 358.15. Graham, “The Cost of Freedom,” January 15, 1961, collection 191, tape 575, BGCA.16. Graham, Labor, Christ, and the Cross, 4.17. Graham, The Kingdom Society, 8.18. Graham, Billy Graham Answers Your Questions, 58.19. King, Jr., “The Ethical Demands for Integration,” in A Testament of Hope, 117.20. King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, 190.
Notes242
21. King, Jr., Remarks to the NAACP-Sponsored Mass Rally for Civil Rights, 1, MLKJP, GAMK.22. Graham, Four Great Crises (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1957), 2.23. Ibid., 4.24. Graham, The Revival We Need, 4.25. Ibid., 5–6.26. Graham, Four Great Crises, 5–6.27. Graham, The Revival We Need, 7.28. Quoted in Edwin Gaustad, Faith of Our Fathers: Religion and the New Nation (San Francisco, CA:
Harper & Row, 1987), 65.29. Quoted in Ibid., 77.30. King, Jr., “The Birth of a New Age,” Papers 3, 341.31. Ibid.32. King, Jr., Remarks to the NAACP-Sponsored Mass Rally for Civil Rights, 1.33. See King, Jr., Strength to Love, 52–53.34. Transcript of “My Answer,” author marked as “Ferm,” March 20, 1957, collection 19, box 9,
folder 1, BGCA. Given Ferm’s authorship, it seems likely that he was the theological catalystbehind the shift in Graham’s thought.
35. Press Conference Transcript, Tokyo, October 16, 1967, 4.36. Ibid., 9.37. Graham, The Revival We Need, 10.38. Ibid., 11.39. King, Jr., “Who Is Their God?” The Nation (October 13, 1963): 209.40. Graham, The Revival We Need, 7.41. Christianity Today ( January 19, 1973): 416, quoted in Richard V. Pierard, “Billy Graham—
Preacher of the Gospel or Mentor of Middle America,” Fides et Historia, vol. 5, nos. 1–2 (Fall1972–Spring 1973): 130.
42. Pierard, “Billy Graham—Preacher of the Gospel or Mentor of Middle America,” 130.43. Graham, The Seven Deadly Sins, 52.44. Ibid., 94.45. Graham, Americanism (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1956), 5.46. Graham, Labor, Christ, and the Cross, 4.47. Graham, Christ’s Marching Orders, 10.48. Press Conference Transcript, San Diego, April 30, 1964, 15.49. Graham, Four Great Crises, 11.50. Graham, America at the Crossroads (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,
1958), 5–6.51. Engel v. Vitale, 370 US 421 (1962), quoted in Steven K. Green, “Evangelicals and the Becker
Amendment,” Journal of Church and State, vol. 33 (Summer 1991): 547.52. Christianity Today ( July 5, 1963); 47, quoted in Green, “Evangelicals and the Becker
Amendment,” 555.53. “The Becker Amendment,” Christian Century, vol. 81 (April 15, 1964): 475.54. Press Conference Transcript, Phoenix, April 23, 1964, 3.55. Ibid.56. Press Conference Transcript, San Diego, April 30, 1964, 18.57. Playboy Interview: Martin Luther King, Jr., in A Testament of Hope, 373.58. Graham, “The World’s Bestseller,” 1962, collection 74, tape 4, BGCA.59. Hearings on School Prayers before the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives,
88th Congress., 2nd Sess. (1964), quoted in Green, “Evangelicals and the Becker Amendment,”559, fn. 112.
60. Press Conference Transcript, Atlanta, November 5, 1964, 5.61. Green, “Evangelicals and the Becker Amendment,” 551.62. Press Conference Transcript, Columbus, July 9, 1964, 7.63. Graham, “My Answer—Individuals Make Nation Christian,” The Atlanta Constitution, August 3,
1966, 5.64. King, Jr., “MIA Mass Meeting at Holt Street Baptist Church,” Papers 3, 73–74.65. King, Jr., Autobiography, 354.66. See Martin, A Prophet with Honor, 269–285. See also Randall Balmer and Lauren F. Winner,
Protestantism in America (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2002). “During the 1960
Notes 243
presidential campaign,” they write, “Graham met in Montreaux, Switzerland, with NormanVincent Peale and other Protestant leaders to devise a way to derail the campaign of John F.Kennedy, the Democratic nominee, thereby assisting Nixon’s electoral chances” (228). On thispoint, A. James Reichley is wrong when he writes that Graham “skirted the anti-Catholic enthu-siasm that galvanized most evangelicals against John Kennedy” Faith in Politics (Washington, DC:Brookings Institution Press, 2002), 292.
67. There is a paucity of material on Graham and nationalism. For one study, see Barry Hankins, “BillyGraham and American Nationalism” (M.A. thesis, Baylor University, 1983).
68. Michael Eric Dyson, I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York:The Free Press, 2000).
69. News Release Transcript, Crusade Information Service, Billy Graham Team Office, November 17,1965, Houston, Texas, collection 345, box 55, no. 5, p. 1, BGCA.
70. Press Conference Transcript, March 12, 1968, Black Mountain, North Carolina, collection 24,box 1, folder 8, pp. 8–9, BGCA.
71. Press Conference Transcript, Zagreb, July 1967, 1.72. Press Conference Transcript, Atlanta, November 5, 1964, 3.73. Graham, “Turn Back, America,” July 26, 1964, collection 191, tape 759, BGCA.74. Graham, America at the Crossroads, 10.75. Graham, Americanism, 9.76. Graham, America at the Crossroads, 10.77. Ibid.78. Graham, “The Sword of Damocles,” Decision (May 1963): 14.79. Graham, “The One Way Out,” Decision (April 1964): 14–15.80. Graham, God and the Nations, 9–10.
Chapter Four “He Belonged to All the Races”:
The Evolution of Graham’s Race Ethics
1. Graham, “Why Don’t Churches Practice Brotherhood?” Reader’s Digest (August 1960): 55.2. Graham, Just As I Am, 425.3. Quoted in Marshall Frady, Billy Graham, 68. Frady’s lively account here is of one of Graham’s
childhood friends.4. Graham, Just As I Am, 12.5. Quoted in Jerry Beryl Hopkins, “Billy Graham and the Race Problem, 1949–1969” (Ph.D. diss.,
University of Kentucky, 1986), 15. Although I disagree with some of his interpretations, I amgreatly indebted to Hopkins’s excellent and carefully documented dissertation. For more on thetopic, see James French, “Billy Graham’s Role in the Civil Rights Movement” (M.A. thesis,California State University, 1975); and Michael D. Hammond, “Conscience in Conflict: Neo-Evangelicals and Race in the 1950s” (M.A. thesis, Wheaton College Graduate School, 2002).
6. Graham, Just as I Am, 425.7. Graham, “Why Don’t Churches Practice Brotherhood?” 55.8. Graham, Just As I Am, 63.9. Ibid., 426.
10. Earnest Albert Hooten, Up from the Apes (New York, NY: Macmillan, 1931), 592–593, quoted inHopkins, “Billy Graham and the Race Problem,” 19.
11. Hopkins, “Billy Graham and the Race Problem,” 36.12. Graham, “Why Don’t Churches Practice Brotherhood?” 55.13. Ibid.14. See Hopkins, “Billy Graham and the Race Problem,” 41–42.15. Quoted in Ibid., 42–43. Hopkins sources include The Clarion-Ledger, June 3, 1952 and July 19,
1952; and Jackson Daily News, June 25, 1952.16. Graham, Just as I Am, 426.17. “Southern-born Evangelist Declares War on Bigotry,” Ebony (September 1957): 100.18. Interview of Billy Graham by F. Lee Bailey, “Good Company,” ca. 1960, collection 74, film 9,
BGCA.
Notes244
19. Graham, “Why Don’t Our Churches Practice Brotherhood?” 55.20. Press Conference Transcript, Washington, DC, December 22, 1964, 5.21. Untitled Tape, April 1, 1970, Dortmund, Germany, collection 24, tape 18, BGCA.22. One Body, One Spirit (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association), collection 19,
box 10, folder 2, BGCA.23. Graham, Peace with God, 195.24. “Southern-born Evangelist Declares War on Bigotry,” 104.25. Ibid.26. Graham to Eisenhower, August 19, 1955, DDEL.27. See, for example, Press Conference Comments, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 17, 1967, tape 17,
collection 24, BGCA.28. “Southern-born Evangelist Declares War on Bigotry,” 99.29. Graham, “Billy Graham Makes Plea for an End to Intolerance,” Life (October 1, 1957): 140–141.30. Ibid., 143.31. Graham, “No Solution to Race Problem ‘at the Point of Bayonets,’ ” U.S. News and World Report
(April 25, 1960): 94.32. Graham, “Billy Graham Makes Plea to End Intolerance,” 143.33. Graham, “Racial Prejudice: The Answer,” Report (December 1965): 11.34. Graham, Billy Graham Answers Your Questions, 127.35. For the most cogent articulation of this position, see James Cone, Black Theology & Black Power
(New York, NY: Seabury Press, 1969).36. Press Conference Transcript, Black Mountain, March 12, 1968, 11.37. “Southern-born Evangelist Declares War on Bigotry,” 100.38. Ibid., 102.39. Graham, “Love and Little Rock,” tape 403.40. Graham, “Solving Our Race Problems through Love,” July 25, 1963, collection 191, tape 711,
BGCA.41. “Southern-born Evangelist Declares War on Poverty,” 102.42. Graham, “The Human Heart,” 15.43. Graham, “Billy Graham Makes Plea for an End to Intolerance,” 143.44. Graham, “God and the Color of a Man’s Skin,” Decision (August 1965): 1; see also Graham, Billy
Graham Answers Your Questions, 125–126.45. Graham, “The Only Hope for the Race Problem,” March 28, 1965, collection 191, tape 794, BGCA.46. “Press Conference,” Decision (September 1962): 14; see also Graham, Billy Graham Answers Your
Questions, 127.47. Graham, “Billy Graham Makes a Plea for an End to Intolerance,” 143.48. Graham, “God and the Color of a Man’s Skin,” 15.49. Graham, “The Great Reconciliation,” Decision ( June 1964): 2.50. Graham, “God and the Color of a Man’s Skin,” 15.51. Graham, World Aflame, 7.52. Graham, “Billy Graham Makes a Plea for an End to Intolerance,” 140; see also Graham, “No
Solution to Race Problem ‘at the Point of Bayonets,’ ” 94.53. Graham, Four Great Crises, 8.54. “Southern-born Evangelist Declares War on Poverty,” 102.55. Graham, “Christ, the Answer to the Race Problem,” May 19, 1963, collection 191, tape 697,
BGCA.56. Graham, “Why Don’t Our Churches Practice Brotherhood?” 53.57. Graham, “No Solution to Race Problem,” 94.58. Ibid., 95.59. Graham, “Memo to the Team: Statement by Billy Graham on Selma Situation from His Hospital
Bed at St. Francis Hospital, Honolulu, Hawaii,” no date, collection 345, box 44, no. 1, BGCA.60. Letter from Billy Graham to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, March 27, 1956, DDEL.61. Graham to Eisenhower, June 4, 1956, DDEL.62. Graham, Just as I Am, 201.63. Press Conference Transcript, Columbus, July 9, 1964, 5.64. “Southern-born Evangelist Declares War on Bigotry,” 102.65. Graham, “Racial Prejudice,” 10.66. Ibid., 11.
Notes 245
67. Martin, A Prophet with Honor, 262.68. Quoted in Ibid., 262.69. Graham, Just As I Am, 338.70. Quoted in Martin, A Prophet with Honor, 263.71. Press Conference Transcript, San Diego, April 30, 1964, 10. See also Press Conference Transcript,
Phoenix, April 23, 1964, 12.72. “Statement by Billy Graham Released Following President Johnson’s Civil Rights Address,” no
date, collection 345, box 44, folder 1, BGCA.73. See Max Goldberg, Transcript of “Billy Graham Gives Frank Views on War in Viet Nam, Race
Riots,” September 25, 1965, North America Newspaper Alliance, 2, LBJL.74. Quoted in Hopkins, “Billy Graham and the Race Problem,” 95.75. Graham, “The Great Reconciliation,” 2.76. Graham to Johnson, July 6, 1964, LBJL.77. Graham, “Racial Prejudice,” 10.78. Graham, untitled sermon, July 18, 1957, collection 26, tape 495, BGCA.79. Graham, Just As I Am, 360.80. Press Conference Transcript, Washington, DC, December 22, 1964, 4.81. See Letter from Chauncey Eskridge to Martin Luther King, Jr., June 13, 1962; Letter from Wyatt
Tee Walker to Robert S. Denny, November 14, 1962; and Letter from Wyatt Tee Walker toRobert S. Denny, November 21, 1962. All these letters are on file with the Martin Luther King, Jr.Papers Project.
82. Dullea, A Catholic Looks at Billy Graham, 31.83. Richard V. Pierard, “Billy Graham—Preacher of the Gospel or Mentor of Middle America?” 130.84. Mark Silk, Spiritual Politics: Religion and America Since World War II (New York, NY: Simon and
Schuster, 1988), 64.85. Grant Wacker, “Uneasy in Zion: Evangelicals in Postmodern Society,” in Evangelicalism and
Modern America, ed. George Marsden (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans PublishingCompany, 1984), 27.
86. Religious News Service, March 3, 1965, quoted in Streiker and Strober, Religion and the NewMajority, 53.
Chapter Five “This Is Freedom Out of Control!”:
Graham’s Dissent from the Civil Rights Movement
1. Graham, “The Only Hope for the Race Problem,” tape 794.2. Ibid.3. Chuck Stone, “Silly Billy Graham Magnificent Phony,” Chicago Defender, April 18–24, 1964,
collection 19, box 4, folder 34, BGCA. Seven years later, the highly regarded Joseph A. Johnson, Jr.delivered equally pointed criticism by connecting plantation religion with Billy Graham. “Thewhite church establishment,” Johnson wrote, “presented to the black people a religion carefullytailored to fit the purposes of the white oppressor, corrupted in language, interpretation and appli-cation by the conscious and unconscious racism of white Christians from the first plantation mis-sionary down to Billy Graham.” See The Soul of the Black Preacher (Philadelphia, PA: Pilgrim Press,1971), 90.
4. King, Jr., “To Billy Graham,” Papers 4, 265.5. Untitled Tape, Dortmund, Germany, April 1, 1970, collection 24, tape 18, BGCA.6. Hopkins, “Billy Graham and the Race Problem,” 61.7. Graham to Eisenhower, March 27, 1956, 1, DDEL.8. Graham to Eisenhower, June 4, 1956, 1, DDEL.9. King, Jr., “To Billy Graham,” Papers 4, 457–458.
10. Branch, Parting the Waters, 227–228.11. I have taken this quote from Martin, A Prophet with Honor, 235. Martin quotes Howard O. Jones’s
recollection of the pre-crusade meeting.12. Branch, Parting the Waters, 227–228.13. “From Grady Wilson,” Papers 4, 458.
Notes246
14. News Release, Crusade Information Service, Billy Graham Team Office, Atlanta, Georgia, April 5,1965, collection 345, box 55, no. 5.
15. Graham, “Love and Little Rock,” tape 403.16. Graham, “Here Is Text of Graham’s Thursday Night Sermon,” The Charlotte Observer, October 17,
1958, 8B. The title for this sermon at BGCA is “Youth Aflame.”17. Graham, “Why Don’t Our Churches Practice Brotherhood?” 52.18. Graham, “Christ, the Answer to the Race Problem,” tape 697.19. Graham, “Let’s Keep God’s Moral Standards,” September 22, 1963, collection 191, tape 715,
BGCA.20. Graham, “Billy Graham Makes Plea for End to Intolerance,” 138. On Africans enslaving Africans,
Graham also added: “However, it must be remembered that they did not have the Christian con-cept of the Golden Rule.”
21. Ibid., 144.22. Graham, “Solving Our Race Problems through Love,” tape 711; see also Graham, “No Solution
to Race Problem ‘at the Point of Bayonets,’ ” 95.23. Graham, “Racial Prejudice,” 10.24. Graham, World Aflame, 5.25. Graham, “Solving Our Race Problems through Love,” tape 711. Here we would do well to
remember James Cone’s take on Billy Graham and Norman Vincent Peale. “Of course,” Conewrites, “their view of the gospel is not arrived at through an open encounter with the biblical mes-sage, but is determined by the continued social and political dominance of whites over blacks. Theyare the best examples that religious conservativism and white racism are often two sides of the samereality.” See God of the Oppressed (Seabury Press; repr., Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1997), 46.
26. Ibid.27. Press Conference Transcript, December 22, 1964, Washington, DC, 6.28. We will see that Charles Dullea is terribly wrong in his argument that Graham took a “firm stand
for integration” (A Catholic Looks at Billy Graham, 120).29. “Issues and Answers,” ABC, New York, 1969, collection 74, tape 17, BGCA.30. Press Conference Transcript, July 29, 1968, New York City, collection 24, box 1, folder 13,
BGCA.31. Graham, “Billy Graham Makes Plea for End to Intolerance,” 143.32. Graham, “No Solution to Race Problem,” 94.33. Graham, “Solving Our Race Problems through Love,” tape 711.34. Letter from Nelson Bell to Mrs. R.H. Peake, Norfolk, Virginia, August 7, 1956, collection 318,
box 41, folder 11, BGCA.35. Graham, “No Solution to Race Problem,” 94.36. King, Jr., “The Ethical Demands for Integration,” A Testament of Hope, 118.37. Ibid., 123.38. Ibid.39. Graham, “Billy Graham Makes Plea for an End to Intolerance,” 138.40. Graham, World Aflame, 7. See also Press Conference Transcript, Washington, DC, December 22,
1964, 2; and Graham, “Racial Prejudice,” 10.41. Graham, “Love and Little Rock,” tape 403. It is grossly inaccurate of W. David Lockard, The
Unheard Billy Graham (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1971) to write, unqualifiedly, that “Grahamknows that gradualism may amount to a virtual stagnation of social and racial conditions as they are.He underscores the imperative role of vital legislation” (124–125). Graham was a gradualist whoopposed using legislation as a tool for achieving “forced integration.”
42. King, Jr., “The ‘New Negro’ of the South: Behind the Montgomery Story,” Papers 3, 284.43. King described legislation as a tool of justice in his first MIA speech. See King Jr., “MIA Mass
Meeting at Holt Street,” Papers 3, 74. King increasingly realized, in light of various obstructionisttactics, that passing legislation, issuing executive orders, and ruling in court cases were necessary butinsufficient measures for establishing justice in society. He thus began to stress that the state mustenforce compliance with its just laws. Justice, for King, became exactly that—enforced compliancewith the just laws of the state.
44. King, Jr., “The ‘New Negro,’ ” Papers 3, 284.45. Graham, “Prayer, the Solution to the Race Problem,” June 23, 1963, collection 191, tape 702,
BGCA.46. Press Conference Transcript, Columbus, July 9, 1964, 5.
Notes 247
47. Graham, “Statement by Billy Graham Following President Johnson’s Civil Rights Address,” col-lection 345.
48. Graham, “God and the Color of a Man’s Skin,” 14.49. Graham, “Racial Prejudice,” 10.50. Press Conference Transcript, Phoenix, April 23, 1964, 3.51. Press Conference Transcript, San Diego, April 30, 1964, 17.52. Press Conference Transcript, Black Mountain, March 12, 1968, 12.53. Press Conference Transcript, Columbus, July 9, 1964, 5.54. Boykin to Eisenhower, March 19, 1956, 2, DDEL.55. Graham to Eisenhower, June 4, 1956, DDEL.56. Graham, “Billy Graham Makes Plea,” 151.57. Graham, “Why Don’t Churches Practice Brotherhood?” 54.58. Press Conference Transcript, Miami, Florida, December 5, 1963, collection 24, tape 4, BGCA.59. King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Why We Can’t Wait, 81.60. S. Jonathan Bass, Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Martin Luther King, Jr., Eight White Religious Leaders, and
the ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2001), 148.61. See New York Times, April 17, 1963; quoted in Bass, Blessed Are the Peacemakers, 104; and Branch,
Parting the Waters, 737.62. Graham, “Statement by Billy Graham Following President Johnson’s Civil Rights Address,”
collection 345; see also Graham, “Racial Prejudice,” 11.63. Graham, “Special Memo to the Team: Statement by Billy Graham on Selma Situation from his
Hospital Bed at St. Francis Hospital, Honolulu, Hawaii,” no date, collection 345, box 44, folder 1,BGCA.
64. King, “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”65. Graham, “Racial Prejudice,” 10.66. Quoted in Frady, Billy Graham, 416.67. Graham, “Prayer, the Solution to the Race Problem,” tape 702.68. Ibid.69. King, Jr., “Walk for Freedom,” Papers 2, 279.70. King, Jr., “Who Speaks for the South?” A Testament of Hope, 92.71. King, Jr., “The Answer to a Perplexing Question,” Strength to Love, 131–132.72. King, Jr., “Nonviolence and Social Change,” The Trumpet of Conscience, 59.73. Press Conference Transcript, San Diego, April 30, 1964, 10.74. Graham, “To Keep Our Flags Waving,” July 4, 1965, collection 191, tape 808, BGCA.75. Graham, “Christ’s Answer to the World,” 6-A.76. Graham, “America Is in Trouble,” August 6, 1967, collection 191, tape 917, BGCA.77. Press Conference Transcript, May 13, 1966, Los Angeles, 5.78. Graham, “Racial Progress in Alabama,” The Christian ( July 2, 1965): 1, collection 345, box 44,
BGCA.79. Graham, “Turn Back, America,” tape 759.80. See Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton, Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America
(New York: Random House, 1967).81. King, Jr., Autobiography, 323.82. King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 32–44.83. King, Jr., Autobiography, 325. On King’s advances toward the black separatist position, see James
Cone, Martin & Malcolm & America (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991), 226–227.84. See King, Jr., “To Charter Our Course,” Frogmore, South Carolina, May 1967, 9, MLKJP,
GAMK.85. “Issues and Answers,” ABC, New York, 1969, BGCA.86. Press Conference Transcript, Atlanta, December 29, 1967,12.87. Press Conference Transcript, Black Mountain, North Carolina, March 12, 1968, 4.88. Press Conference Transcript, March 17, 1967, San Juan, Puerto Rico, collection 24, tape 17,
BGCA.89. Graham, “The Quiet Revolution,” 3, collection 345.90. King, Jr., “Why We Must Go to Washington,” Atlanta, January 15, 1968, 3, MLKJP, GAMK.91. Ibid., 4.92. Ibid., 8.93. Ibid., 9.
Notes248
94. James Cone, Black Theology & Black Power, 136.95. Graham, “The Quiet Revolution,” 9.96. Graham, “Marching for Christ in Montgomery,” tape 806.97. Ibid.98. Graham, “Billy Graham Makes Plea for an End to Intolerance,” 151.99. Ibid.
Chapter Six “The Tramp, Tramp, Tramp of the
Little Man”: Graham’s Conversion
to the War on Poverty
1. Graham, Just As I Am, 5.2. McLoughlin, Billy Graham, 99.3. Graham, Organized Labor and the Church (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association, 1952), 2.4. McLoughlin, Billy Graham, 99.5. Graham, Organized Labor, 2.6. Graham, “My Answer” (manuscript), December 24, 1958, collection 19, box 9, folder 1, BGCA.7. Graham, “Labor Day Message,” September 9, 1959, collection 191, tape 504, BGCA.8. Graham, “Thanksgiving,” tape 358. Sara Diamond, Not By Politics Alone: The Enduring Influence of the
Christian Right (New York, NY: The Guilford Press, 1998) understates the point when she arguesthat “Graham’s message was explicitly anticommunist, and implicitly supportive of capitalism and allits attendant inequalities” (60). Graham was explicitly supportive of capitalism, too. But, as we willsee in the text, he also became critical of the inequalities that capitalism generated.
9. Graham, “Labor Day Message,” tape 504.10. See Graham, My Answer, 101.11. Graham, World Aflame, 186.12. Graham, Billy Graham Answers Your Questions, 104.13. Ibid.14. Graham, My Answer, 106.15. Graham, Billy Graham Answers Your Questions, 108–109.16. Ibid., 109.17. Ibid., 102.18. Graham, The Economics of the Apocalypse (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association, 1975), 9.19. Graham, Organized Labor, 5.20. Graham, “Christ’s Message to the Laboring Man,” August 31, 1958, collection 191, tape 451, BGCA.21. Graham, “Labor Day Message,” tape 504.22. Stewart Burns, To the Mountaintop: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Sacred Mission to Save America:
1955–1968 (San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 2004), 67.23. King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, 203.24. King, Jr., Why We Can’t Wait, 135.25. King, Jr., “The Negro and the Constitution,” Papers 1, 110.26. King, Jr., “The ‘New Negro’ of the South,” Papers 3, 286.27. King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, 205.28. Ibid., 204.29. King, Jr., “If the Negro Wins, Labor Wins,” in A Testament of Hope, 203.30. Ibid., 204.31. Graham, “The Love of Money,” December 11, 1960, collection 19, tape 570, BGCA.32. Graham, The Seven Deadly Sins, 95.33. Graham, Peace with God, 197.34. Graham, Billy Graham Answers Your Questions, 102.35. Theodore Weber, Politics in the Order of Salvation: Transforming Wesleyan Political Ethics (Nashville,
TN: Abingdon Press, 2001).
Notes 249
36. Graham, Peace with God, 197.37. Graham, “The Love of Money,” tape 570.38. Graham, Billy Graham Answers Your Questions, 105.39. Graham, Peace with God, 197.40. Graham, Billy Graham Answers Your Questions, 105.41. Graham, Peace with God, 197.42. Graham, Billy Graham Answers Your Questions, 105.43. “Here Is Text of Graham’s Wednesday Night Sermon,” The Charlotte Observer, September 24, 1958,
6-A. BGCA, which holds this text in collection 74, box 7, folder 3, lists the sermon title as“America’s Greatest Sin.” Subsequent references to this sermon will cite the BGCA title.
44. Ibid.45. Graham, America at the Crossroads, 4.46. Graham, The Seven Deadly Sins, 69.47. Graham, The Seven Deadly Sins, 96.48. King, Jr., “The Burning Truth in the South,” in A Testament of Hope, 96.49. Graham, “America’s Greatest Sin,” 6-A.50. Ibid.51. See, for example, Graham, “Love of Money,” tape 570.52. Graham, America at the Crossroads, 6–7.53. Graham, “The Quiet Revolution,” 5, collection 345.54. Graham, Needed! Strong Men, 7.55. Graham, America at the Crossroads, 6.56. Graham, Needed! Strong Men, 7.57. Graham, “Why Communism Is Gaining,” November 17, 1963, collection 191, tape 723, BGCA.58. Graham, My Answer, 184.59. Graham, “Why Communism Is Gaining,” tape 723.60. Graham, The Ultimate Weapon, 1961.61. Graham, Three Dimensional Love of God (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association, 1959), 1.62. Ibid., 3.63. Ibid., 10.64. Graham, World Aflame, 34.65. Ibid., 10–11.66. See Graham, The Seven Deadly Sins, 69.67. Ibid., 68.68. Graham, “A Look at 1956,” January 1, 1956, collection 191, tape 312, BGCA.69. Graham, “Sleeping through a World Revolution,” collection 191, tape 637, March 25, 1962,
BGCA. See also Graham, World Aflame, 223.70. Press Conference Transcript, April 30, 1964, San Diego, 13–14.71. Ibid., 14.72. King, Jr., “Paul’s Letter to American Christians,” Papers 3, 416.73. King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom, 93.74. Ibid., 94.75. King, Jr., Trumpet of Conscience, 62.76. King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here? 180.77. King, Jr., Autobiography, 301.78. Press Conference Transcript, July 9, 1964, Columbus, 10.79. “Get Tough Policy Urged by Graham,” The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, August 15, 1965, 2.80. “Probe of Religious Influence Expected in Aftermath of Los Angeles Riots,” Religious News
Service Transcript, August 16, 1965, 17, BGCA.81. Ibid.82. “King Favors Use of Police in Riot,” UPI News Story, August 14, 1965, BGCA.83. “Probe of Religious Influence Expected in Aftermath of Los Angeles Riots,” Religious News
Service Transcript, August 16, 1965, 16, BGCA.84. “Billy Graham Says Riots a Symptom of the Revolt of Man against God,” Religious News Service
Transcript, August 27, 1965, BGCA. King was not the only one to offer a public rebuttal toGraham. The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), a nonviolent organization closely aligned withKing and the civil rights movement, also took issue. “It has become the favorite American myth,”
Notes250
stated the FOR, “that every situation we do not like may be attributed to the machinations of‘sinister forces.’ ” If there were such forces present in Watts, they were “incidental to the under-lying frustration and bitterness that permeate so much of the Negro population of our country,and that grow from the slowness with which Negroes are realizing the full participation inAmerican life to which they are entitled” (see “Physical, Spiritual Rehabilitation Efforts GetUnderway in Los Angeles,” Religious News Service Transcript, August 18, 1965, BGCA, 2).
85. “Graham Asks LBJ, FBI Bare Race Agitators,” The Atlanta Journal, July 19, 1966, BGCA, 3.86. Ibid.87. Graham, World Aflame, xiv–xv.88. Graham, “Text of Remarks Prepared for Delivery by the Reverend Billy Graham: Presidential
Prayer Breakfast,” Washington, DC, February 17, 1966, BGCA, 6. For a concise and helpful lookat Graham’s role in the prayer breakfasts, see Nicole H. Miller, “The Political-ReligiousDiscourse of Billy Graham at the Presidential Prayer Breakfasts of the 1960s” (M.A. thesis,Colorado State University, 1998).
89. Graham, Our God Is Marching On (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,1966), 7.
90. Graham, Rioting or Righteousness (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,1967), 3–4.
91. Graham, “America Is in Trouble,” tape 917.92. Ibid.93. “Graham Slaps at Great Society,” April 12, 1967, Atlanta Journal, 17, collection 345, box 44, no. 5.94. For Graham’s embrace of this passage, see “My Answer” (transcript), October 30, 1958, collec-
tion 19, box 6, folder 8, BGCA.95. “Graham Slaps at Great Society,” April 12, 1967, Atlanta Journal, 17.96. Graham, The Kingdom Society, 7.97. Ibid., 2.98. King, Jr., Why We Can’t Wait, 135.99. King, Jr., Statement before the Platform Committee of the Republican National Convention, San
Francisco, July 7, 1964, 9, MLKJP, GAMK.100. King, Jr., Statement before the Platform Committee of the Democratic National Convention,
Atlantic City, August 1964, 9, MLKJP, GAMK.101. King, Jr., “Revolution and Redemption,” 3, MLKJP, GAMK.102. King, Jr., Remarks by King at the Convocation on Equal Justice under Law of the NAACP Legal
Defense Fund, May 28, 1964, 3, MLKJP, GAMK.103. Graham to Johnson, March 7, 1967, LBJL.104. “Billy Graham: Only Government Action Can Win Poverty War,” Religious News Service
Transcript, June 16, 1967, box 44, no. 13, BGCA.105. Beyond These Hills: A Rural Community Action Film with Billy Graham (Washington, DC: Office of
Economic Opportunity, Community Action Program, 1967), collection 345, film 15, BGCA.106. Beyond These Hills: A Rural Community Action Film with Billy Graham (Washington, DC: Office of
Economic Opportunity, Community Action Program, 1967), collection 345, film 16, BGCA.107. Beyond These Hills, film 15.108. “Billy Graham: Only Government Action Can Win Poverty War,” collection 345, BGCA.109. Graham Says He’s Been Converted on Poverty War,” June 15, 1967, Baptist Press Release, col-
lection 345, box 44, no. 13, BGCA.110. Beyond These Hills, films 15 and 16.111. Beyond These Hills, film 15.112. Beyond These Hills, film 16.113. Beyond These Hills, films 15 and 16.114. Press Conference Transcript, Columbus, Ohio, January 28, 1963, collection 19, box 4, folder 9,
BGCA.115. “Graham Says He’s Been Converted on Poverty War,” collection 345, BGCA.116. Beyond These Hills, film 16.117. Beyond These Hills, film 15.118. Ibid.119. Ibid.120. Beyond These Hills, film 16.121. Graham to Johnson, June 30, 1967, LBJL.
Notes 251
122. Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (New York, NY: Bantam, 1968),quoted at http://web.mit.edu/gtmarx/www/kerner/html.
123. Press Conference Transcript, March 12, 1968, Black Mountain, 4.124. Ibid.125. Ibid., 5.126. Ibid., 10.127. Press Conference, May 13, 1968, Los Angeles, collection 24, tape 8, BGCA.128. Ibid.129. Ibid. Graham had criticized the Peace Corps in earlier years. In 1963, for example, he depicted it
as “almost completely materialistic in its aims. Without God at its center, it cannot possiblyaccomplish all that we might hope for it” (Religious News Service, August 30, 1963, quoted inStreiker and Strober, Religion and the New Majority, 62.
130. King, Jr., Speech to Staff Retreat, Frogmore, November 14, 1966, 18.131. Ibid., 20.132. Graham, “This Violent Hour,” May 12, 1968, collection 191, tape 957, BGCA.133. Ibid.134. In the early 1970s Richard Pierard wondered whether Graham would backtrack on the poverty
question, given Nixon’s dismantling of the War on Poverty. But Pierard could have posed hisquestion much earlier than he had, primarily because Graham was backtracking long before the1960s came to an end. See Pierard, “Billy Graham—Preacher of the Gospel or Mentor of MiddleAmerica?” 130.
Chapter Seven “I’m Not a Pacifist”: On Militarists, Pacifists, and Vietnam
1. Telegram from Graham to Truman, June 26, 1950, HSTL.2. Graham to Truman, July 18, 1950, HSTL.3. Graham, America’s Decision (Minneapolis, MN: Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1953), 2.4. Ibid., 4. In addition to preaching a number of sermons on Korea, Graham also wrote a small book
on his personal reflections of a trip he had taken to Korea. See I Saw Your Sons at War: The KoreanDiary of Billy Graham (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1953).
5. Graham, America’s Decision, 3.6. Graham to Eisenhower, May 10, 1954, DDEL.7. Graham, The Signs of the Times (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1957), 1.8. Ibid., 3.9. Graham, Needed! Strong Men, 2.
10. Ibid., 3. Mark A. Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. EerdmansPublishing Company, 1994), has argued that because of Graham’s example, “other American evan-gelicals began to overcome fundamentalist Manichaeism” (214). Noll’s point, that Grahamempowered the evangelical community to begin cooperating with other Christians, is certainlywell-taken. But throughout the King years, the evangelist also encouraged his followers to adopt aManichaeism in terms of their interpretation of global politics. Manichaeism, that is, did not disap-pear from Graham’s thought.
11. Graham, The Signs of the Times, 2.12. Graham, Needed! Strong Men, 6.13. Graham, “The Cause of War Is Spiritual,” March 17, 1957, collection 191, tape 375, BGCA.14. Ibid.15. Ibid.16. Graham, World Aflame, 68.17. Graham, “The Cause of War Is Spiritual,” tape 375.18. Graham, The Signs of the Times, 3.19. Graham, “God With Us,” Decision (December 1961): 14–15.20. Graham, “Wars and Rumors of Wars,” tape 642.21. Graham, The Secret of Happiness: Jesus’ Teaching on Happiness as Expressed in the Beattitudes (Garden
City, KS: Doubleday & Company, 1955), 72.
Notes252
22. Graham, “War and World Peace,” June 4, 1967, collection 191, tape 908, BGCA.23. Graham, The Signs of the Times, 4.24. Ibid.25. Graham, “The Cause of War Is Spiritual,” tape 375.26. Graham, Needed! Strong Men, 4.27. Ibid.28. Ibid., 5.29. Ibid.30. Ibid., 8.31. Ibid., 10.32. Graham, “The Quiet Revolution,” 7.33. “Modern History Sourcebook: Khrushchev and Eisenhower: Summit Statements, May 16, 1960,”
fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1960summit-statements1.34. Graham, “Peace with God,” May 15, 1960, collection 191, tape 540, BGCA.35. Ibid.36. “Press Conference,” Decision (September 1962): 14.37. Address by Billy Graham, July 30, 1965, Asheville, North Carolina, Crusade Information Service,
collection 345, box 44, folder 6, p. 8, BGCA.38. Graham, “The Quiet Revolution,” 7.39. Graham, “Christian Attitudes Toward World Crisis,” February 4, 1968, collection 191, tape 943, BGCA.40. Graham, World Aflame, 224.41. Graham, “Flames of Revolution,” June 25, 1967, collection 191, tape 911.42. Graham, The Signs of the Times, 7.43. Graham, World Aflame, 237.44. “This Is Text of Graham’s Sunday Afternoon Service,” The Charlotte Observer, October 20, 1957,
5-B. BGCA, which holds this sermon in collection 74, box 7, folder 2, lists the title of this sermonas “The Great Judgment.”
45. Graham, World Aflame, 236.46. Ibid., 237.47. Press Conference Transcript, Atlanta, December 29, 1967, 2.48. Graham, Peace with God, 214.49. Ibid., 215.50. Graham, World Aflame, 216–224.51. Ibid., 226.52. Graham, “The Way for World Peace,” December 3, 1967, collection 191, tape 934, BGCA.53. Ibid.54. For a pathetic reaction to Graham’s relationship with Rome, see Ian R.K. Paisley, Billy Graham and
the Church of Rome (Belfast: Martyrs Memorial Free Presbyterian Church, 1970).55. Graham, World Aflame, 228.56. Graham, “The Way for World Peace,” tape 934.57. “The ‘Great Society’ Will Be God-Made, Not Man-Made, Billy Graham Tells Congress,” The
Maryland Baptist, Baltimore, Maryland, July 8, 1965, 3, collection 345, box 42, folder 4.58. Graham, “Peace with God,” tape 540.59. Graham, “The Way for World Peace,” tape 934.60. Graham, “Peace with God,” tape 540.61. Graham, “Christian Attitudes Toward World Crisis,” tape 943, February 4, 1968.62. “Press Conference,” Decision, 16.63. Ibid., 15.64. Graham, World Aflame, 197.65. Ibid., xiv.66. Ibid., 197.67. Ibid., 198. See also Graham, “Flames of Revolution,” tape 911.68. Graham, Billy Graham Answers Your Questions, 121.69. Ibid.70. Graham, World Aflame, 209.71. Graham, My Answer, 181.72. “5,000 Hear Evangelist at Pentagon Building,” December 13, 1965, Religious News Service,
collection 345, box 42, folder 23, BGCA.
Notes 253
73. Graham, “My Answer: Bible Hints Defensive War Is Just,” The Atlanta Constitution, May 11,1966, 5, collection 345, box 43, folder 19.
74. See Text of Remarks Prepared for Delivery by the Reverend Billy Graham, February 17, 1966,collection 345, 1. See also Graham, Our God Is Marching On.
75. Text of Remarks, February 17, 1966, 2.76. Ibid., 2–3.77. Ibid., 4.78. Ibid.79. Ibid., 4–5.80. Ibid., 5.81. Ibid., 6.82. Ibid., 5.83. Ibid., 6.84. Press Conference Tape, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 17, 1967, collection 24, tape 17, BGCA.
One Graham interpreter, Charles Dullea, accepted Graham’s thoughts here uncritically.“Graham,” Dullea writes, “has avoided taking sides on certain political-moral questions, notablythe Vietnam War, and this has caused criticism” (A Catholic Looks at Billy Graham, 116). As we willsee, Dullea could not be more deceived than he is.
85. Graham, Prepare for the Storm (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,1961), 2.
86. Ibid., 1. As noted.87. Graham, The Ultimate Weapon, 2.88. See Graham, “Facing the Anti-God Colossus,” 6.89. Graham, God and the Nations, 8.90. Graham, “Why Communism Is Gaining,” tape 723. The previous chapter addressed the eco-
nomic dimension of this definition.91. Max Goldberg, Transcript of “Billy Graham Gives Frank Views on War in Vietnam, Race
Riots,” September 25, 1965, 1, LBJL.92. Graham to Johnson, July 11, 1965, LBJL (emphasis mine).93. I am interested here in expanding a thesis set forth by Richard T. Hughes in his excellent study
titled Myths America Lives By (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003). Hughes argues thatbecause of his anti-communism preaching “Graham perhaps did as much as any other Americanin the 1950s to divide the world into good versus evil” (172). I would expand this in two ways.One, because of his sky-high profile in the 1950s, Graham was one of the primary movers in shap-ing American public opinion about communism. Two, as the text suggests, Graham divided theworld into goodness versus evil in the 1950s and the 1960s.
94. See Christian Century (March 29, 1967): 410–411, quoted in Pierard, “Billy Graham andVietnam,” 47.
95. Graham, World Aflame, 12.96. Graham, “The Real Cause of War,” May 30, 1965, collection 191, tape 803, BGCA.97. Graham, When Silence Is Yellow (Minneapolis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,
1965), 1.98. Ibid., 2.99. Ibid., 5–6.
100. Ibid., 6.101. Ibid., 9. I strongly disagree with Richard Pierard’s sense that Graham was “quite circumspect in
public statements about Vietnam and careful not to affirm it as a crusade for righteousness inSoutheast Asia” (“Billy Graham and Vietnam: From Cold Warrior to Peacemaker,” ChristianScholars Review [1980]: 41). As the text above shows, Graham used the language of holy war inprivate and public.
102. Transcript of “Billy Graham Gives Frank Views on War in Vietnam, Race Riots,” 1.103. “Billy Graham to Servicemen: ‘Millions Pray for You,’ ” Religion News Service, December 13,
1965, collection 345, box 43, folder 27, BGCA.104. Graham, “Christmas in Vietnam,” December 25, 1966, collection 191, tape 885, BGCA.105. Graham, “Vietnam Impressions,” January 1, 1967, collection 191, tape 886, BGCA.106. Graham to Johnson, March 7, 1967, 2, LBJL.107. King, Jr., “War and Pacifism,” Papers 1, 435.108. King, Jr., Address at the Conference on Religion and Race, Chicago, Illinois, Edgewater Beach
Hotel, January 17, 1963, 13, MLKJP, GAMK.
Notes254
109. King, Jr., Strength to Love, 36.110. King, Jr., “Who Is Their God?” 210. King was responding here to the use of troops to safeguard
the admission of James Meredith to the University of Mississippi.111. King, Jr., “Pilgrimage to Nonviolence,” in A Testament of Hope, 39.112. King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here? 181.113. King, Jr., “Revolution and Redemption,” 10, MLKJP, GAMK.114. King, Jr., A Trumpet of Conscience, 72.115. King, Jr., “Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, Oslo, Norway, December 10, 1964, MLKJP,
GAMK.116. King, Jr., “Brighter Day,” copy of article for Ebony, March 1965, 5, MLKJP, GAMK.117. Redbook transcript of interview with King, Jr., November 5, 1964, question 2, MLKJP, GAMK.118. King, Jr., “A Time to Break Silence,” in A Testament of Hope, 233.119. Ibid., 234.120. See Henry E. Darby and Margaret N. Rowley, “King on Vietnam and Beyond,” Phylon vol. 47
(Spring 1986): 49.121. “Graham Criticizes Dr. King,” New York Times, April 26, 1967, collection 345, box 44, folder 1,
BGCA.122. “Demonstrations Prolong War, Billy Graham Charges,” Religion News Service, April 27, 1967,
collection 345, box 44, folder 12, BGCA.123. King, Jr., “To Charter Our Course,” 26, MLKJP, GAMK.124. King, Jr., “The Drum Major Instinct,” A Testament of Hope, 265.125. King, Jr., “Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution,” A Testament of Hope, 275.126. Graham to Johnson, June 30, 1967, LBJL.127. Ibid.128. Press Conference Transcript, Atlanta, December 29, 1967, 2.129. Ibid., 2–3.130. Ibid., 3. Again, I disagree with Pierard, who states that Graham “stood behind the president”
throughout 1967 (“Billy Graham and Vietnam,” 45). Graham had begun to side with the presi-dent’s critics by the end of 1967. More fundamentally, Pierard makes a misstep when he claims inanother article that “unlike many other prominent clergymen Graham refused to criticize the man-ner in which Lyndon B. Johnson and Nixon pursued the war or to call for American withdrawal”(“Billy Graham and the U.S. Presidency,” Journal of Church and State 22, no. 1 (1980): 107–127.Graham did not call for withdrawal, but he did openly criticize Johnson’s handling of the war.
131. Ibid., 4.132. Ibid., 3.133. Ibid.134. Ibid., 3–4.135. Press Conference Transcript, Black Mountain, March 12, 1968, 7.136. Ibid., 8.137. Ibid.138. Ibid.139. Ibid.140. Graham, “Jesus, the Great Revolutionist,” tape 583.141. Ibid.142. Ibid.143. Ibid.144. Graham, “Racial Prejudice,” 10.145. Graham, “Love and Little Rock,” tape 403.146. Ibid.147. Ibid.148. Graham, “Rioting, Looting, and Crime,” July 30, 1967, collection 191, tape 916, BGCA.149. Graham, “The Real Role of the Church,” tape 933.150. Graham, “A Cause to Fight,” tape 918.151. Graham, World Aflame, 12.152. Ibid., 78.153. Ibid., 12.154. In light of Billy Graham’s advocacy for disarmament talks in the 1980s, Donald G. Bloesch, The
Future of Evangelical Christianity: A Call for Unity Amid Diversity (Garden City, KS: Doubleday &Company, Inc., 1983) argued that “Billy Graham has become one of the leading voices on behalf
Notes 255
of peace” (6). (For more on Bloesch’s take on Graham, see his “Billy Graham: A TheologicalAppraisal,” Theology and Life [May 3, 1960]: 136–143.) Richard Pierard responded to Graham’scall for nuclear disarmament in a much more reasonable way—by asking whether the evangelistwould “stay the course for peace.” Given Graham’s quick baptism of the wars against Iraq, theanswer to that question is a resounding “no.” See Richard V. Pierard, “Billy Graham: Will HeStay the Course for Peace?” Covenant Quarterly (February 1984): 17–29.
Conclusion: “We Are Now in the
Violent Society”—A Question of Legacy
1. Graham, no title, April 7, 1968, collection 191, tape 952, BGCA.2. Ibid.3. King, Jr., “The Drum Major Instinct,” A Knock at Midnight, 185–186.4. Drew D. Hansen, The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Speech that Inspired a Nation (New
York: Ecco, 2003), 228.5. The recently revealed derogatory comments he made about Jews in Nixon’s Oval Office suggest
that the ignominy did not stop with the King years. For news story on item, as well as its context,see http://www.beliefnet.com/story/101/story_10193_1.html.
6. Martin Marty, Religion and Republic: The American Circumstance (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1987),accurately claims that Graham’s premillenialism “says in effect that churches cannot do muchabout the nagging issues of their day. The only substantial change in history will occur with theSecond Coming of Christ . . .”(256). McLoughlin, Billy Graham, made a similar point, thoughusing a different interpretive hermeneutic. “Graham,” McLoughlin wrote, “is giving voice to thatstrong perfectionist streak in American pietism which, by refusing to be satisfied with anythingless than a perfect social order, leads to a refusal to make any effort to alter the status quo” (91).McLoughlin’s comment is enlightening but not as helpful as tracing Graham’s politics of resigna-tion to his premillenialism.
7. Streiker and Strober, Religion and the New Majority, rightly argue that “any analysis which con-ceives Billy Graham to be either the greatest revivalist of all time or White House ‘chaplain’ fallsshort of defining his actual place in American society.” Writing in 1972, the authors attempt todefine his role as “the leader of the politically decisive majority, the man who more consistentlythan anyone else articulates the aspirations and fears of the bulk of his fellow citizens” (189). Bycontrast, my thesis defines his role during the King years as two-fold—as the twentieth century’sgreatest evangelist, and as the major Protestant obstructionist to the beloved community. On arelated note, Joel Carpenter, Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), refers to Graham as the “evangelist to the nation”—hence my “world’s best trumpeter for personal salvation.”
8. For more on Graham’s rhetoric, see Wayne Bond, “The Rhetoric of Billy Graham:A Description, Analysis, and Evaluation” (Ph.D. diss., University of Southern Illinois, 1979); andBilly Edward Vaughn, “Billy Graham: A Rhetorical Study in Adaptation” (Ph.D. diss., Universityof Kansas, 1972). Perhaps the most creative subject in this field can be found in Hubert Coleman,“A Comparative Rhetorical Analysis of Speeches of Stokely Carmichael and Billy Graham”(M.A. thesis, Bowling Green State University, 1970). And for more on Graham’s consistent pop-ularity during part of the King years, see Jon P. Alston, “Popularity of Billy Graham, 1963–1969:Review of the Polls,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion ( June 1973): 227–230.
Appendix: Behind the Billy Pulpit
1. Letter from Robert O. Ferm to Family, April 12, 1954, collection 19, box 13, folder 3, BGCA.The Ferm letters cited in this appendix are all from this same collection, box, and folder.
2. Telegram from Billy Graham to Lois Ferm, no date, collection 19, box 13, folder 3, BGCA.3. Interview of Lee Fisher, January 1976, Oral History 70, collection 141, box 7, folder 17, BGCA, 4.4. Ibid.
Notes256
5. Letter from Lee Fisher to Lois Ferm, December 21, 1975, collection 171, box 7, folder 17.6. Graham, Just As I Am, 283.7. Letter from Robert O. Ferm to Family, March 18, 1954, BGCA.8. Ferm to Family, March 23, 1954, BGCA.9. Ferm to Family, March 27, 1954, BGCA.
10. Ferm to Family, March 28, 1954, BGCA.11. Ferm to Family, undated, BGCA.12. Ferm to Lois Ferm, April 9, 1954, BGCA.13. Ferm to Family, postmarked April 9, 1954, BGCA.14. Ferm to Family, April 12, 1954, BGCA.15. Ferm to Family, April 10, 1954, BGCA.16. Ferm to Family, April 9, BGCA.17. Ferm to Family, April 12, 1954, BGCA.18. Ferm to Lois Ferm, April 18, 1954, BGCA.19. Interview of Dr. Robert O. Ferm, June 21, 1978 and January 10, 1979, collection 141, box 7,
folder 15, BGCA, 14.20. Martin, A Prophet with Honor, 138.21. Grant Wacker, “The Billy Pulpit,” The Christian Century (November 15, 2003): 26.
Notes 257
I N D E X
Abington Township School District v. Schempp(1963), 69
activism, 17, 21, 29, 33, 41–43, 235n10Acts of the Apostles, 25, 51–52, 54, 55Adam and Eve, 92–93, 182Adams, John, 66Africa, 64, 99–101, 107, 216–17, 220, 224African Americans, 4, 66, 92, 165, 207;
Black Power and, 104, 133–37;economic justice and, 155, 173;experience of, 59, 61–62, 86; Grahamand, 80, 81, 83, 109, 131, 138; workers,149, 151. See also race; racism; slavery
Age of Affluence, 154–55Alabama, 111; Birmingham, 94–95, 102–4,
115, 126–27, 132; Montgomery, 8, 34,35, 104, 110, 129, 138; Selma, 95–96,103, 113–14, 127–28, 206
America: economics and, 156–57, 159–60;foreign policy of, 65, 159–60, 162,164–65, 179; history of, 45, 58;materialism of, 154–55, 155–56, 159;poverty and, 155, 160, 165–66, 172,175, 176–77; power of, 211–12; soul of,3, 31, 223. See also Americanism;government; under individiual state
“America is in Trouble” (sermon), 131, 166American Federation of Labor and
Congress of Industrial Organizations(AFL-CIO), 149, 150, 151
American Legion, 58, 59, 75, 78Americanism, 56, 57–78, 211; America as
blessed and favored and, 59–62;communism and, 57–58; individualismand, 61, 65, 76–77; interpretation ofhistory and, 62–67; Protestantism and,73–74, 78; secularism and, 65, 67–73,
76; true patriotism and, 77–78; vs. worldcitizenship, 75
“Americanism” (sermon), 68Americans Against Bombs of Bigotry, 103anarchy, 76, 96, 206, 208, 218Anti-Christ, 180–81, 192–93, 194, 197,
210. See also Jesus Christ; SecondComing of Christ
apartheid, 99–101, 107apocalypse, 25–28, 185, 190–93, 194, 196;
eschatology and, 161, 167; fatalism and,188; King and, 209–10; realism of, 195.See also Second Coming of Christ
atheism, 63, 64Atlanta, Georgia, 27, 81, 82
Bailey, F. Lee, 84Baptism, 8, 49, 105, 110, 235n9, 246n3Barnhart, Joe, 6Barth, Karl, 12Bass, Jonathan, 127Becker, Frank, 69Becker Amendment, 69–71, 123Bell, Nelson, 99, 119Bellah, Robert, 58beloved community, 7, 207, 223–24;
America and, 66–67, 77–78; church’smission and, 30–31, 35, 43–44; civilreligion and, 59; clean hearts and, 55–56;desegregation and, 94; Graham’sopposition to, 1, 3, 5, 10, 29, 225;human nature and, 15, 17; KingdomSociety and, 26–27; King’s hope for, 23,28, 161–62; laws undermining, 53;lobbying and, 47; local politics and, 35;obstructions to, 136. See also civil rightsmovement; King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Berlin Wall, 6Beyond These Hills (documentary), 169–73Bible, the, 10–13, 30, 169–70; Acts of the
Apostles, 25, 51–52, 54, 55; vs. anarchy,71; apocalypse and, 190–93; blood ofChrist and, 18–20; charity and, 35–36;early America and, 63, 64; Ezekial, 190;false references to, 31, 45–46, 119,145–46; Galations, 24; Gospel and, 14,117–18, 217; human nature and, 15,195; Isaiah, 194; James, 182; Jeremiah,61, 188–190, 203; Luke, 39, 40; Mark,14; Matthew, 33–35, 40, 90, 93, 117,189; pacifism and, 196, 202; parables in,35–36, 39, 40, 90–91, 152, 191–92;political authority and, 43, 52; Psalms,192, 194, 196; on race, 82, 83, 86–89;Revelation, 54, 190, 192–93; Romans,51, 53; in school, 69–71; socialtransformation and, 21, 23, 76. See alsoPaul; Jesus Christ
biblical criticism, 11–13, 89Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged, 168Billy Graham Archives, 5, 11Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
(BGEA), 42, 84Birmingham, Alabama, 94–95, 126–27,
132; bombing in, 102–4, 114. See alsoLetter from Birmingham Jail (King)
Black, C. William, 112Black, Hugo, 131Black Power, 104, 133–37blacks, See African AmericansBlack Theology & Black Power (Cone), 138body, the, 40, 43bombings, 102–4, 107, 114born-againism, 20–23, 24, 42, 66,
184, 187Boston University, 11, 72boycotts, 99–101, 107; of Montgomery bus
system, 8, 34, 35, 104, 110, 129Boykin, Frank, 124Boys Town, 33–36Bradford, William, 62, 63Branch, Taylor, 2, 105, 113Brown, Reese, 79Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka
(1954), 83–84, 86, 96–97, 120–21, 124
Buckley, William F., 6Bunche, Ralph, 211
Caesar, 44–45, 53, 216Calvin, John, 152, 216Cambodia, 213Canaan, 87–88capitalism, 60, 176, 249n8Carmichael, Stokely, 133, 137–38, 206Carson, Clayborne, 6Carter, Jimmy, 50“Cast Your Vote for Christ” (sermon),
45–46Catholicism, 74, 193“A Cause to Fight” (sermon), 41“The Cause of War is Spiritual” (sermon),
181cause of world’s problems, 11, 13, 18, 24,
29, 236n18Chappell, David L., 5, 9charity, 34–36, 50, 240n14Charlotte Crusade, 8–9, 11–17, 18–20, 23,
25–26, 59Chattanooga Crusade, 82–84, 85Chicago, Illinois, 162Chicago Defender (newspaper), 109China, 75, 158, 205Christ, See Christology; Jesus ChristChristian Century (magazine), 9, 13,
69–70, 82Christian dissidents of Vietnam War, 224Christianity: Baptists and, 8, 49, 105, 110,
235n9, 246n3; born-againism and,20–21, 24, 42, 66, 184, 187; Catholicismand, 74, 193; Civil Rights Movementand, 10, 14, 38, 51, 66, 110–11;conservatism and, 6, 36, 40, 94–96, 214,247n25; democracy and, 61–62; earlyAmerica and, 62–67; free worship and,53, 54, 55, 62, 64; fundamentalism and,9, 11–12, 29, 32, 69, 110; peacemakingand, 195, 216; politics and, 31, 32, 34,44–50, 56; Protestantism and, 9, 73–74,78, 88, 152, 168; salvation and, 3, 17,18–20; soldiers for, 15, 185–86. See alsoapocalypse; the Bible; civil religion;conversion; Second Coming of Christ;secularism
Christianity Today (magazine), 9, 43, 71
Christology, 31, 180, 189, 209, 216“Christ’s Marching Orders”
(sermon), 15Churchill, Winston, 199, 200, 203
Index 259
church involvement in politics, 30–56;Boys Town and bloc voting, 33–36;civil disobedience and, 50–55; God’smessage in government and, 36–39;individual Christians and, 44–50;Kingdoms of God vs. world, 40–44;local politics and, 31–33; primacy ofevangelism and, 55–56; primary churchmission and, 39–40
civil disobedience, 50–55, 75, 77, 132, 174civil religion, 58–67, 73–75, 77, 94–96Civil Rights Act (1964), 97–98, 103–4,
121, 122–23, 124, 127civil rights movement, 4–5, 22, 28, 55, 91,
97–107; achievements of, 135–36;apartheid and, 99–101; backlash to,131–32, 135, 136, 178; Christianity and,10, 14, 38, 51, 66, 110–11; communismand, 132–33; creation ethics and, 91;demonstrations and, 101–2; Graham’ssupport of, 86–87, 104–6, 106–7, 140,224; law and, 97–99; nonviolence of, 207,217–18, 236n14. See also Graham’s civilrights dissent
Civil War, 63classism, 30, 159, 161, 211. See also
ownership class, workersClinton, Tennessee, 103, 110, 111Clinton bombing, 103Cold War, 181Collins, Thomas LeRoy, 104colonialism, 160, 162, 216–17communism, 6, 95, 220, 222, 249n8,
254n93; Christianity and, 19, 46,157–59, 185–87; Civil RightsMovement and, 132–33; as evil, 202–5,217; ghettos and, 165; godlessness and,183, 196, 215; Graham and, 2, 114, 132,157–62, 179–80; Kennedy and, 201,213; King and, 161, 176; McCarthy and,57–58; Russia and, 60, 180, 183, 187,190, 192. See also Vietnam War
Community Action Program, 169–70community life of a town, 32–33, 45Cone, James, 138Congress (U.S.), 29, 63, 64, 69, 97Connally, John, 48Connor, Bull, 94, 114, 115conscience of the state, 30, 33, 36, 102conscientious objection, 1–2, 72
conservatism, 36, 40, 94–96, 214, 220,247n25
Constitution (U.S.), 65, 70conversion, 16, 28, 42, 55, 95, 184;
Graham’s racial, 80–85; Graham’sreligious, 79, 83; limits of, 23–25; socialchange and, 20–23, 29, 80
“The Cost of Freedom” (sermon), 60creation ethics, 91–92, 209credibility gap, 214–15crime, 8, 11, 14, 15–16, 17, 35cross, the, 19–20, 91–93, 184, 205;
cruciform love and, 207–8, 209Crozer Theological Seminary, 11, 206crusades, 16, 196, 206; Charlotte, 8–9,
11–17, 18–20, 23, 25–26, 59;Chattanooga, 82–84, 85; in communistcountries, 190; crowds for, 105–6;desegregation of, 4, 85–86, 96, 97, 103;Easter, 103; godlessness and, 199–200;Harringay, 227, 229; integration of, 4,81–86, 96, 97, 103; language of, 180;Montgomery, 138; New York, 8–9, 11,13–14, 22, 97, 105, 113; San Antonio,113; South Africa and, 100
Cuban Missile Crisis, 57, 201
Daniel, Price, 112–13Decision (magazine), 183Declaration of Independence, 63, 65Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(Gibbon), 69Deep South, 110–12deism, 63, 64democracy, 46, 61–62, 63, 68, 75;
desegregation and, 14, 95; freedom in,217–18
democratic socialism, 4, 176demonstrations, 1, 3, 135, 163, 208;
Christian marches and, 138–39, 177;Graham on, 101–2, 130–31, 137, 174;Graham’s nonparticipation in, 4, 9–10,29, 50–51, 128
depravity, 15–16, 18, 23–25desegregation, 17, 38, 87–88, 119–21; of
crusades, 4, 85–86, 96, 97, 103. See alsosegregation
Detroit, Michigan, 166, 174; riots in, 218discrimination, 35, 62, 74, 80, 87, 99–100;
prejudice and, 104, 115–17
Index260
disenfranchisement, 208, 210, 211. See alsovoting
dissent, 75, 203, 211, 213, 215; King and,206, 218–19
diversionary politics, 113–18Dodd, C. H., 24Dullea, Charles W., 106, 240n14, 247n28,
254n84Dulles, John Foster, 37, 181, 182Dyson, Michael Eric, 74
Easter crusades, 103Ebenezer Baptist Church, 222Ebony magazine, 83, 85economic justice, 7, 29, 47, 175, 211, 223;
God’s plan and, 146–47; Graham’sopposition to, 1, 2, 43, 67; KingdomSociety and, 26–27
education, 41, 61; of Graham, 12, 20, 80,81, 83, 227; of King, 11, 72, 206
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 52, 73, 111–12,124–25, 132, 188; Graham’scorrespondance with, 22, 86, 97; Indo-China and, 179; likened to God, 191,192; lobbying and, 47–49; strength of,181, 215; Vietnam and, 202
electoral politics, 34, 41, 49, 112, 166–67.See also voting
Engel v. Vitale (1964), 30, 69–70, 71eschatology, 161, 167. See also apocalypse;
Second Comingespionage, 188ethic of subordination, 54, 56, 76Ethiopia, 92evangelism, 28–29, 41–42, 64, 69, 195;
neo-evangelism and, 9–10, 38;pessimism and, 23–25, 40, 193; primacyof, 55–56
evil, 185–86, 201, 202–5, 207, 217;compromise with, 179, 195, 213
extremists, 130–35, 164Ezekial, book of, 190
faith, 38, 65, 73, 210, 211Farmer, James, 211Faubus, Orval, 97Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),
2, 164federal deficit, 156–57Ferm, Lois, 227, 228
Ferm, Robert O., 5, 227–32, 243n34“The Final World War” (sermon), 203Fisher, Lee, 5, 227, 228, 230Florida Bible Institute, 12, 20, 80Ford, Gerald, 6foreign policy, 65, 159–60, 162,
164–65, 179forgiveness, 19, 207Frady, Marshall, 79France, 211Franklin, Benjamin, 63, 64freedom, 51, 60–62, 167, 181, 199; in
Southeast Asia, 202–3, 204free enterprise, 61, 73, 143–44, 149, 172,
176; desegregation and, 95free will, 183free worship, 53, 54, 55, 62, 64frugality, 147–48fundamentalism, 9, 11–12, 29, 32,
69, 110
Galations, 24Gandhi, 195Garden of Eden, 144Garrow, David, 2Gaustad, Edwin, 63ghettos, 162, 163–66, 168, 173, 174–75Gibbon, Edward, 69Gingrich, Newt, 34God, 28, 44–45, 59, 91; as angry God, 72,
210; as just God, 191; godlessness and,195, 196, 198, 204, 210, 215;government and, 36–39, 41, 51
God-given ideals, 57“God and Crime” (sermon), 59“God and the Color of a Man’s Skin”
(sermon), 91Goldberg, Max, 202Goldwater, Barry, 132–33, 156good and evil, 180–81, 183–84,
254n93good citizenship, 44–50, 218Good Samaritan parable, 35–36, 90–91Good Shepherd parable, 191–92Gospel, 14, 21, 117–18gospel of content, 145–48, 151–52,
154, 172government, 17–18, 32, 45, 53, 207–8;
“big government” and, 163, 167, 171,172; Christianity and, 39–40, 44, 46–47,
Index 261
government––continued48, 187; God and, 28, 36–39, 41, 51,52–54; power of, 30, 54, 74, 192–93,218; social welfare and, 171–72, 173;world government and, 192–193, 197,210. See also America; law; politics
gradualism, 124–28, 126–27, 132Graham, Billy Frank, 1–7, 8–29, 30–56,
143–48, 151–78, 179–220, 221–26;backlash to Civil Rights Movement,131–32, 135, 136; backsliding on Waron Poverty, 176–78; “big government”and, 122, 163, 167, 171, 172; on causeof war, 181–84; childhood of, 79–80,143; on church’s primary mission,39–40, 40–44; on civil disobedience,44–50, 74–75; Civil Rights Movementand, 131–32, 135, 136, 140–42;communism and, 2, 114, 132, 157–59,160–62, 179–80; conversion to War onPoverty, 169–73; correspondance withKing, 8, 9, 110, 112–13; criticism ofJohnson, 78, 212–15; on demonstrations,128, 130–31, 135, 137–39, 163, 174; oneconomics, 156–57; emphasis on spirit,111, 117, 122–23, 138, 163, 166,173–74, 177; evangelical pessimism of,23–25; faith history of, 9–10, 28–29,55–56; ghettos and, 163–66; on God’smessage through government, 36–39; ongood citizenship, 44–50; gospel ofcontent and, 145–48, 151–52, 154;government response to poverty and,173–76; on King’s assassination, 1–4; onlocal politics, 31–36, 41–42, 46–47;Manicheanism and, 179–81, 184;materialism and, 154–55, 158–59;nonsupport of King, 206–12; onnonviolence, 215–19; opposition topacifism, 194–200; opposition to Waron Poverty, 166–69; political realismand, 187–90; revisionist history of, 110,118, 124; riots and, 163–66; SecondComing and, 25–28, 190–94; spiritualcounterrevolutions, 184–87; studies of,5–7; on Vietnam, 75, 200–206, 212,215–16, 219; wealth and, 151–54. Seealso Americanism; Graham’s civil rightsdissent; Graham’s race ethics; sermons
Graham, Franklin, 214Graham’s civil rights dissent, 108–42;
Black Power and, 136–37, 141; DeepSouth and, 110–13, 141; diversionarypolitics and, 113–18, 141; extremistsand, 130–35, 141; forced integrationand, 118–21, 141; gradualism and, 124–28, 141; interpersonal politicsand, 139–40, 141; legislation and,121–24, 141; prayer and, 128–30, 141;Quiet Revolution and, 135–39, 141
Graham’s race ethics, 79–107; apartheidand, 99–101; Birmingham bombing and,102–4; civil rights demonstrations and,101–2; conversion of, 80–85; Jesus’ raceand, 89–94; law compliance and, 96–99;prophetic stance of, 85–86; racistbiblicism and, 86–89; support for Kingand, 104–6; white power and, 94–96
Graham team, 100, 106, 227–28Great Conflagration, 190–93, 194Great Depression, 35, 143–44, 166, 175Great Society, 26, 166–67, 225. see also
War on PovertyGreen, Steven, 71
Ham, Mordecai, 11, 79, 236n19Hamer, Fannie Lou, 140Hansen, Drew, 223Harringay Crusade, 227, 229Hart, Roderick, 58hate, 91, 183Hays, Brooks, 111hearts, 28, 45, 195; conversion of, 11, 20–23,
40, 55–56, 187; limits of law and, 17–18;sin-sick, 24–25, 208; social transformationand, 29, 42; spiritual renewal of, 122–23,137, 163, 166; war and, 182–84, 189;world’s problems and, 13–16
Henry, Carl F. H., 9, 81Henry, Patrick, 199Hitler, Adolf, 186, 200Hoffa, Jimmy, 148holy wars, 202, 204, 254n101. See also
crusadesHooten, Earnest Albert, 81Hoover, J. Edgar, 2, 132Hopkins, Jerry, 81, 85, 111Houghton College, 227, 229
Index262
Hour of Decision (radio program), 15, 57,188, 233n5; first sermon after King’sdeath, 3–4, 221. See also sermons
housing, 164human history, 25–27, 180, 192, 209human nature, 17, 35, 39, 44, 197, 218;
the Bible and, 15–16; peace and, 193,195, 200, 209–10; war and, 182–84
human rights, 18, 168Humphrey, Hubert, 121Hungary, 60, 180–81, 183, 187
idolatry, 75“I Have a Dream” speech (King), 2, 24,
223–24imago Dei, 209income, 173India, 155individualism, 5, 165, 172, 187, 191,
237n41; America and, 61, 65, 75–76,158; politics and, 44–50, 158, 195;salvation and, 14–16, 17, 55, 91, 117,225; social transformation and, 20–23,26, 28, 137–38, 165, 238n59; war andpeace ethic and, 182–84
Indo-China, 179inflation, 156–57inheritance story, 39, 40inquiring lawyer story, 90integration, 2, 26–27, 47, 100, 109, 224;
crusades and, 4, 85–86, 96, 97, 103;forced, 4, 118–21, 124, 247n41. See also segregation
Isaiah, book of, 194Islam, 99Israel, 77, 88, 190, 192, 196“Issues and Answers” (television program),
118, 134
Jackson, Joseph, 166Jackson Crusade, 82James, book of, 182Jefferson, Thomas, 64, 65Jehoshaphat, 76, 185–86Jeremiah, book of, 61, 188–90, 203“Jesus, the Great Revolutionist” (sermon), 53Jesus Christ, 2, 28, 36, 60, 203, 221; as “all
and in all,” 31–32, 38; American historyand, 57, 58, 62, 63–64, 75; Anti-Christ
and, 180–81, 192–93, 194, 197, 210;blood of, 18–20; born-againism and,20–23; Caesar text and, 44–45; church’sprimary mission and, 39–40;desegregation and, 96, 106; nonviolenceand, 207, 216, 219–20; peace and,184–85, 198, 208–9, 215; politics and,33, 50, 188–90; as Prince of Peace,188–200, 204; race of, 89–94; Romeand, 53–54; war and, 182–85, 204,208–9; wealth and, 152–53; world’sproblems and, 11, 13–15, 17
Jesus Movement, 20Jews, 73, 256n5Jim Crowism, 1, 61, 114, 115John, book of, 53Johnson, Joseph, 246n3Johnson, Lyndon Baines, 26, 47, 52,
177–78, 198; administration of, 200–4,210, 216; Civil Rights Act and, 103–4;civil rights movement and, 97, 102,103–4, 111, 122; criticism of, 78, 130,202–3, 255n130; Graham’scorrespondence with, 55, 205–6,212–15; War on Poverty and, 2, 164,166–68, 170, 173
Jones, Howard, 100Judd, Walter, 49judgment, 191–92, 198Judgment Day, 87. See also apocalypse;
Second Coming of Christjustice, 18, 35, 51, 181, 197, 224; God and,
17, 19; injustice and, 86; just-war theoryand, 198, 200, 206, 212. See alsoeconomic justice
Kaufman, Estes, 111“To Keep Our Flags Waving”
(sermon), 131Kennedy, John F., 46, 47–49, 52, 73–74,
215, 244n66; communism and, 2, 202,210, 213
Kennedy, Robert, 148Kerner Commission Report, 134,
173–75Khrushchev, Nikita, 180–81, 185, 188King, Martin Luther, Jr., 2, 6, 107,
118, 149, 247n43; activist politics of, 32; on American history, 64–65;
Index 263
King, Martin Luther, Jr.––continuedAmerica’s blessing and, 61–62;assassination of, 1–4, 132, 174–78,221–26; the Bible and, 12–13, 19, 88,118; Black Power and, 104, 133–34;church’s mission and, 30–31, 43–44; oncivil disobedience, 74; civil religion of,59, 65, 66; communism and, 161, 176;correspondence with Graham, 8, 9, 110,112–13; criticism of Graham by,112–13, 130; criticism of Johnson by,213; economic justice and, 150, 155,162, 164, 168; education of, 11, 72, 206;foreign aid and, 162; on God, 191;Graham’s opposition to, 206–12, 233n9;Graham’s support of, 94, 96–97, 102,104–6; on justice, 86; labor unions and,149–51; letter from Birmingham CityJail, 43–44, 52, 75, 106, 126–27, 128;microcosmic strategy of, 113–15;miracles and, 23–24; New York Crusadeand, 8–9, 22; nonviolence and, 19, 149,180; pacifism and, 180, 206, 208;political action and, 10, 56; politicalauthority and, 36–39, 51–52, 54–55;politics and, 41, 47, 49–50; prayer and,129–30; Riverside speech and, 210, 211,212; school prayer and, 70–71, 72–73;Second Coming and, 25, 26; segregationand, 87, 95, 119–20; social justice and,14, 15, 17, 28, 29, 33; stabbing of, 131;war and, 215
King, Martin Luther, Sr., 235n10Kingdom of God, 44–45, 45, 65kingdom of the world, 40–41, 44–45Kingdom Society, the, 25, 26Kiwanis speech (Graham), 166–67Korean War, 179
“Labor, Christ, and the Cross” (sermon), 57
Labor Day sermon, 144labor unions, 101, 144–45, 147–51, 212Laos, 210, 213laws, 35, 56, 107; civil, 53, 75; of jungle,
183, 222; just vs. unjust, 52–54, 55, 74,77, 208, 218; legislation and, 17, 30, 33,96, 121–24, 173; limits of, 16–18;obedience to, 83, 96–99, 208
Lawson, James, 1leadership vacuum, 111
Lee, Robert E., 63–64, 139–40Letter from Birmingham Jail (King),
43–44, 52, 75, 106, 126–27, 128Lewis, John, 133liberalism, 15, 18, 204, 218Life (magazine), 13, 115, 118, 120, 125, 158Lincoln, Abraham, 65, 166, 199, 200Little Rock, Arkansas, 110, 111, 114, 120Little Rock crisis, 52–53, 90–91, 97, 122,
217–18, 237n46lobbying, 47–50, 111, 170–71, 179localism, 33, 35, 46–47, 48, 50Los Angeles: Watts riot, 163–64, 173,
237n46Louisville Crusade, 86love, 19, 197, 220. See also neighbor-loveLuke, book of, 39, 53Luther, Martin, 12, 13, 15, 197, 216, 218;
political ethics of, 40–41, 42, 48, 111
MacArthur, Douglas, 182, 185, 186, 195,201, 203
Malcolm X, 224Mandela, Nelson, 100Manicheanism, 180–81, 183–84, 187,
252n10marches. See demonstrationsmarginalization, 3, 33, 40, 93, 210Maritain, Jacques, 158, 161Mark, book of, 14Martin, William, 73, 99, 105, 231Marty, Martin, 11Marx, Karl, 158materialism, 11, 154–55, 158–59, 167, 185Matthew, book of, 17, 33–35, 40, 90, 93, 189McCarthy, Joseph, 58McCarthy Hearings, 57McLoughlin, William, 6, 24, 144media, 81, 83, 94–95Meredith, James, 133militarism, 60, 63, 185, 187, 215; pacifism
and, 196, 197; soldiers and, 50, 204. Seealso war
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 166miracle motif, 23–24Montgomery, Alabama, 110; bus boycott,
8, 34, 35, 104, 110, 129; crusade, 138moralism, 13, 18, 37–40, 202, 237n46;
immorality and, 57, 192Morehouse College, 11Morgenthau, Hans, 190
Index264
Moses, 92Mundt, Karl, 214Muste, A. J., 149
Nash, Lee, 29National Advisory Commission on Civil
Disorders. See Kerner Commission Reportnationalism, 46, 75. See also Americanism“Needed! Strong Men” (sermon), 181neighbor-love, 93, 96, 184, 200, 206,
215–19; born-againism and, 21, 22; vs.slavery, 89–91
neo-evangelicalism, 9–10, 38New Year’s Day sermon, 159–60New York Crusade, 11, 13–14, 23, 97,
105, 113; King and, 8–9, 22New York Times, 204Niebuhr, Reinhold, 10, 11, 190, 197,
236n24; New York Crusade and, 13–14, 23
Niemoller, Martin, 95Nixon, E. D., 149Nixon, Richard M., 52, 56, 177–78, 213,
244n66, 255n130; advice to Graham, 55;campaign of, 73–74; King and, 222;lobbying and, 49–50
Noah, 87–88Nobel Peace Prize, 105, 201, 209–10Noll, Mark, 6, 10–11, 47, 58, 241n70nonviolence, 101–2, 187, 199, 205, 224;
Birmingham bombings and, 103; earlyMontgomery activists and, 207;Graham’s, 2, 60, 215–19; in Jesus’ life,204, 208, 210; King on, 19, 149, 180;love and, 191–92
North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA), 223
North Carolina, 79, 169–70, 189, 214North Korea, 187nuclear war, 208, 210, 212
obedience, 54, 60, 186–87, 214Ockenga, John Harold, 9OEO film (Office of Economic
Opportunity), 169–73On Secular Authority (Luther), 40, 42One Body, One Spirit, 84opportunity, 60, 61, 62, 64oppression, 62, 206, 218, 246n3ownership class, 144–45, 147–48,
149, 154
pacifism, 75, 189, 191–92, 207; in theBible, 202, 215; Graham’s dissent of, 2,194–200; King and, 180, 206, 208. Seealso peace
Paine, Stephen, 229Palm Sunday, 221–22parable of the talents, 152Paris peace summit (1960), 188–89Parks, Rosa, 17, 86, 115parochialism, 33partisanship, 32, 49, 112patriotism, 73–74, 101, 106, 199, 204, 214;
repentance and, 76–77; virtue of, 62Paul, 24, 27, 51, 53, 92, 219; advice to
slaves, 88–89; free worship and, 54peace, 1, 7, 29, 42–43, 198, 255n154;
activism for, 189, 206, 212–14; inAmerica, 60, 61, 64; conferences on,188–89, 192–93; on earth, 180, 184–85,187, 194, 205, 215, 222–24; humannature and, 193, 195, 200, 209–10;Jeremiah and, 188–90; Kingdom Societyand, 26–27. See also war and peace ethic
Peace Corps, 175, 252n129Peace with God (Graham), 22, 31, 34–35,
84, 152, 154Pearson, Drew, 102–3, 111Pentecost, 43perfectionism, 23–24personalism, 72–73Peter (disciple), 51, 53Pierard, Richard, 67, 106, 252n139Pilgrim, Walter, 44–45, 53–54Pilgrims, 62, 63, 64, 74Playboy (magazine), 70police, 61–62, 95, 206, 208, 217; world
force of, 197, 210–11political action, 10, 49, 50–51, 56, 65politics, 18, 31–33, 51, 184, 211;
Christianity and, 32, 34, 44–50, 56;church expertise on, 37–38, 39–40, 47;conservatism and, 5; Jesus and, 32; local level and, 31–33; realism and, 102,188–90, 190–93, 194, 197; socialtransformation and, 18; unredeemedsociety and, 56. See also churchinvolvement in politics; electoral politics
Poor People’s Campaign, 2, 54, 174–75,176–78
Potter, Dan, 11, 236n17
Index 265
poverty, 11, 14, 26–27, 224; America and,155, 160, 165–66, 172, 175, 176–77;Christians and, 152, 208; developingcountries and, 160–61, 162; ghettos and,162, 163–66, 168, 173, 174–75; riotsand, 164–66, 173–74; Southern, 149,155. See also War on Poverty
power, 104, 197; access to, 47, 78, 241n70;of government, 18, 192–93
prayer, 12, 53, 63, 128–30, 217; goodcitizenship and, 45–46, 50; King and,129–30; presidential prayer breakfasts and,77, 78, 198, 200–1; in school, 30, 69–73;spiritual counterrevolution and, 186–87
“Prayer, the Solution to the RaceProblem” (sermon), 128–29
prejudice, 104, 115–17. See alsodiscrimination; racism
premillenialism, 10, 29, 26, 256n6presidents, 29, 55, 179, 214; divine
selection of, 46, 52, 214; elections for,34, 41, 49, 112, 166–67; prayerbreakfasts of, 77, 78, 198, 200–1. See alsounder specific president
progressivism, 36prophets, 36–37; Graham as, 47, 67, 72,
85–86, 90–91, 106, 213; Jeremiah as,188–90; King as, 1, 221–22
protest, 97, 198, 211, 212, 214. See alsodemonstrations; Vietnam War
Protestantism, 9, 73–74, 78, 88, 152, 168Psalms, book of, 192, 194, 196
quietism, 54Quiet Revolution, 135, 137, 138–39
race, 1, 8, 11, 35, 47, 89; church and,26–27, 37–39, 43; reconciliation of, 7,29, 65, 207; riots and, 46. See alsoGraham’s race ethics
racism, 30, 94, 115–17, 223, 247n25;apartheid and, 100; in the Bible, 106;King and, 211; labor unions and,150–51; Little Rock crisis and, 52; sinof, 208
radicals, 218–19. See also extremistsrallies, 103. See also demonstrationsRamsey, Paul, 206Randolph, A. Phillip, 149, 151rationalism, 63–64, 72–73Reader’s Digest (magazine), 81, 84, 125
realism, 196, 207. See also politics“The Real Cause of War” (sermon), 203“The Real Role of the Church” (sermon),
42Reeb, James, 140Reichley, A. James, 35religion, 69, 225; freedom of, 53, 54, 55,
62, 64; pluralism in, 70–71, 77–78Religious Right, 6, 34repentance, 76–77Republicans, 112Revelation, book of, 54, 190, 192–93“The Revival We Need” (sermon), 65–66revolution, 134, 136, 137–38, 163, 164,
202–3Richmond, Virginia, 139–40righteousness, 31–32, 200, 202–5riots, 130, 131, 134, 137, 173–74; civil
rights movement and, 163–66; Detroit,218; Watts, 163–64, 173, 237n46
Riverside speech, 210, 211, 212Romans, book of, 51, 53Rome, 53, 69, 77, 204Roosevelt, Franklin D., 175, 238n70Russia, 60, 180, 183, 187, 190, 192; Cuba
Missile Crisis and, 201Rustin, Bayard, 207
sacrifice, 19, 207St. Anselm, 19, 237n51St. Augustine, 15, 196, 216salvation, 3, 18–20; individualism and,
14–16, 17, 55, 91, 117, 225San Antonio Crusade, 113Satan, 27, 114, 180–81, 183, 184–85, 219schools: integration of, 52, 81, 97, 108;
prayer in, 30, 69–71. See also Brown v.Board of Education
Second Coming of Christ, 25–26, 51, 224,225, 256n6; Anti-Christ and, 180–81,192–93, 194, 197, 210; communismand, 161; fundamentalism and, 9; Kingand, 209–10; poverty and, 167–68, 169.See also apocalypse
secularism, 65, 67–73, 76, 148, 158, 183; America and, 59; communism and, 203
segregation, 2, 5, 8, 67, 80, 83, 109;conservative whites and, 94–96; crusadesand, 4, 85–86, 96, 97, 103; in DeepSouth, 224; desgregation, 17, 38, 87, 88,
Index266
119–21; forced integration and, 4, 118,121, 124, 247n41; God’s blessing and,62; individualism and, 15–16, 17;integration and, 2, 26–27, 47, 100, 109,224; Jesus’ race and, 89–94; laws for, 14,52, 74, 83–84, 96–99; political churchand, 30. See also civil rights movement;Graham’s civil rights dissent
Selma, Alabama, 95–96, 103, 113–14,127–28, 206
separation of church and state, 31, 71sermons, 10–20, 41–42; “America is in
Trouble,” 131, 166; “Americanism,” 68;blood of Christ and, 18–20; “Cast YourVote for Christ,” 45–46; “A Cause toFight,” 41; on cause of world’s problems,13–16, 24, 234n1; “The Cause of War isSpiritual,” 181; “Christ’s MarchingOrders,” 15; “The Cost of Freedom,”60; “The Final World War,” 203;ghostwriting of, 5, 227–32; “God andCrime,” 59; “God and the Color of aMan’s Skin,” 91; Graham’s authorship of,5; “Jesus, the Great Revolutionist,” 53;“To Keep Our Flags Waving,” 131;“Labor, Christ, and the Cross,” 57;Labor Day sermon, 144; on limits of law,16–18; “Needed! Strong Men,” 181;New Year’s Day sermon, 159–60;“Prayer, the Solution to the RaceProblem,” 128–29; “The Real Cause ofWar,” 203; “The Revival We Need,”65–66; social issues in, 10–13; “SolvingOur Race Problems through Love,” 90;Thanksgiving sermon, 144–45; “TurnBack, America,” 76; “What’s Wrongwith the World?” 234n1; “When Silenceis Yellow,” 204; “Why Communism isGaining,” 157
The Seven Deadly Sins (Graham), 14–15,68, 152, 159
sex, 67–68Shaftsbury, Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, 148Shriver, Sargent, 169–73Silk, Mark, 107sin, 61, 76, 193, 198; civil disobedience
and, 55; government and, 51, 55;Graham’s sermons and, 10–11, 17, 43;intrasigence of, 29; Luther and, 40;nonviolence and, 216; of racism, 82, 85;Second Coming and, 26; of secularism,
59, 67–73, 195; of segregation, 93, 98;of slavery, 100; social, 14–16, 27; warand, 208
“sinister forces,” 163–68, 173slavery, 63, 64–65, 99–100, 115, 117; in
Bible, 92; compesnation and, 168; Genesisand, 87–88; Paul’s advice and, 88–89
Smith, Christian, 9social activism, 17, 21, 29, 33, 41–43,
235n10social issues, 7, 10–13, 18–20, 24–25, 61;
church and, 36, 37social sin, 14–16, 27social transformation, 18, 24–25, 29, 42,
49, 56; Bible and, 21, 23, 76;individualism and, 20–23, 26, 28,137–38, 165, 238n59
social welfare, 29, 165, 170–73, 171–72, 175society, 37, 56, 76, 173, 175soldiers, 50, 204. See also militarism“Solving Our Race Problems through
Love” (sermon), 90souls, 43, 81; of America, 3, 31, 223;
communism and, 202South, the, 85, 110–12Southeast Asia, 65, 205, 222. See also
Vietnam WarSouthern Christian Leadership Conference,
8, 129Soviet Union. See Russiaspirit, 40, 41; renewal of, 122–23, 137,
163, 166. See also heartsspiritual counterrevolution, 184–87, 217state, the, 30, 45, 219–20states, 74, 104, 210. See also under specific stateStone, Chuck, 109Strength to Love (King), 30, 130Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Comittee (SNCC), 133subsidiarity, doctrine of, 172suffering, 207Supreme Court, 48, 72; Abington Township
School District v. Schempp (1963), 69; Brownv. Board of Education in Topeka (1954),83–84, 86, 96–97, 120–21, 124; Engel v.Vitale (1964), 30, 69–70, 71
Sweden, 176swordless battle, 185–86, 188–90, 198, 217
taxes, 44–45, 52, 73, 156–57, 167, 174–75Texas, 112
Index 267
Thanksgiving sermon, 144–45“the least of these,” 33–34, 40, 90Thoreau, Henry David, 52Thou Shalt Not Kill commandment, 196, 209Till, Emmett, 140Tillich, Paul, 17Truman, Harry S, 47–48, 50, 52, 179, 202,
213“Turn Back, America” (sermon), 76
United Nations, 180–81, 195, 210United States. See Americauniversal church, 31University of Mississippi, 133Up from the Apes (Hooten), 81U.S. News and World Report (magazine), 118utopia, 161–62
value of order, 96–99Vereide, Abraham, 78vices, 21Vietnam War, 1–2, 75, 174–76, 178, 199;
criticsm of, 212–15, 215–16; as holywar, 187, 200–6; King’s resistance to, 4,210, 211, 219; protests against, 196, 198,211, 212
violence, 110, 164, 196, 198, 200, 223–24;begetting violence, 215; of civil rightsmovement, 52, 94, 96, 103, 130–35,297; God and, 191, 192, 193; Grahamand, 187; Jesus and, 180; King on, 206;peace activists and, 214; the state and,30. See also nonviolence
Violent Society, 222, 225–26virtues, 21, 62voting, 33–36, 45–46, 50, 52, 86, 204;
disenfranchisement, 208, 210, 211Voting Rights Act (1965), 98, 123
Wacker, Grant, 107, 109, 231Wallace, George C., 71, 127war, 26–27, 47, 53, 206; African Americans
and, 66; anti-war activists, 30, 197, 214;apocalypse and, 190–93; cause of,181–84, 188, 200, 208; Civil War, 63;individualism and, 15–16, 17; just-wartheory and, 198, 200, 206, 212; KoreanWar, 179; World War II, 191, 192. Seealso militarism; peace; Vietnam War
“War and Pacifism” (King), 206
war and peace ethic, 179–80; Africa and,216–17; Christianity and, 182, 191,193–94; futility of pacifism and,194–200; idividualism and, 182–84;King and, 206, 211, 219–20; politicalrealism and, 188–90; spiritualcounterrevolution and, 184–87;swordless battle and, 185–86, 188–90, 198, 217
War on Poverty, 2, 5, 72, 206, 224;backsliding on, 176–78; conversion to,169–75; King and, 168, 210; lobbyingfor, 170–71; opposition to, 166–69
Warren, Earl (Chief Justice), 48Washington, George, 63–64Watts riot, 163–64, 173, 237n46wealth, 151–54. See also povertyweapons, 188, 196, 205, 207, 218Weber, Theodore, 152welfare, 29, 162, 165, 167, 170–73Wesley, John, 13, 20, 148, 152“What’s Wrong with the World?”
(sermon), 234n1Wheaton College, 12, 80, 81, 83, 227“When Silence is Yellow” (sermon), 204Where Do We Go from Here? (King), 151While England Slept (Kennedy), 201White, Hugh L., 82, 83White Citizens Council, 85, 110whites, 35; white power and, 96, 104, 106,
207. See also African Americans“Why Communism is Gaining” (sermon),
157Wilkins, Roy, 211Williams, Samuel, 161Wilson, Grady, 105, 113Wilson, Woodrow, 66Winthrop, John, 62Word of God, 12, 40–41, 66, 76, 85, 89workers, 143–48, 149–51. See also classism;
labor unions; ownership classWorld Aflame (Graham), 19, 26–27, 93,
116, 191, 219; hearts and, 15–16World Fair (1964), 130world government, 192–93, 197, 210World War II, 191, 192Wright, Mose, 140
Young, Whitney, 211Youth for Christ (YFC), 80, 81, 83
Index268
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